Estimated US Cancer Prevalence Counts: Method

• When estimating prevalence there are several methods for determining which tumors to include, depending on the question of interest. MORE…



• Data on this Web site (pie charts/fast facts) includes "First Malignant Tumors Only."



• This method only counts a person once, and is useful if the user would like to add up various prevalence estimates across cancer sites without double counting individuals. MORE…



• This method underestimates cancers by site.
  Example: If a person has a breast cancer and a prior melanoma, then the person's melanoma would contribute to the melanoma prevalence and the all cancer sites prevalence. Since only the first malignant tumor is counted, the breast cancer would not contribute to the breast cancer prevalence, thus under estimating the number of breast cancer survivors.



• If you need an estimate for an individual cancer site (e.g. breast) consider reviewing the Method: First Malignant Tumor per Site in the Last x Years (observation period) that includes the first malignant tumor per cancer site diagnosed in SEER during the entire observation period. MORE…