Fatal and non-fatal breast cancers in women targeted by BreastScreen Norway: a cohort study

Background Many breast cancer survivors experience anxiety related to dying from their disease even if it is detected at an early stage. We aimed to increase knowledge about fatal and non-fatal breast cancer by describing how histopathological tumour profiles and detection modes were associated with 10-year breast cancer-specific survival. Methods This cohort study included data from women targeted by BreastScreen Norway (aged 50–69) and diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during 1996–2011. Breast cancer was classified as fatal if causing death within 10 years after diagnosis and non-fatal otherwise. We described histopathologic characteristics of fatal and non-fatal cancers, stratified by mode of detection. Recursive partitioning identified subgroups with differing survival profiles. Results In total, 6.3% of 9954 screen-detected cancers (SDC) were fatal, as were 17.4% of 3205 interval cancers (IC) and 20.9% of 3237 cancers detected outside BreastScreen Norway. Four to five subgroups with differing survival profiles were identified within each detection mode. Women with lymph node-negative SDC or Grade 1–2, node-negative IC without distant metastases had the highest 10-year survival (95–96%). Conclusions Two subgroups representing 53% of the cohort had excellent (95–96%) 10-year breast cancer-specific survival. Most women with SDC had excellent survival, as did nearly 40% of women diagnosed with IC.