Survival of patients with hepatobiliary tract and duodenal cancer sites in Germany and the United States in the early 21st century

Abstract

Hepatobiliary tract cancers (HBTC) are a heterogeneous group of cancers with high mortality. Because most of these cancers, with the exception of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are rare, few data are available concerning the population level survival expectations of patients with HBTC. Here, we describe survival of patients with HBTC in Germany with comparison to survival in the United States (US). Therefore, data were extracted from 12 databases in Germany and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER13) database in the US. Period analysis and modeled period analysis were used to calculate 5-year relative survival estimates for patients with HBTC diagnosed from 1997-2013. HCC was the most common HBTC in each database, accounting for over 1/3 of HBTC in Germany and about half of cases in the US. Overall age adjusted 5-year relative survival for HBTC in 2006-13 was 19.1% in Germany and 20.6% in the US. Five year relative survival increased by 3.8 percent units in Germany and 4.5 percent units in the US between 2002-05 and 2010-13. Five year relative survival for individual types of HBTC ranged from 9.8% in Germany and 2.9% in the US for not otherwise specified biliary tract cancers to 44.4% and 50.1%, respectively, in Germany and the US for duodenal cancers. In conclusion, survival for HBTC remains poor in both Germany and the US, although a small increase in survival in the past decade was observed. Further work to find better treatment options for HBTC is needed to improve survival. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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