[Five-year relative survival rates in Swietokrzyskie voivodeship (Poland) on the basis of the Swietokrzyskie Cancer Registry data].

The aim of the study was to evaluate the 5-year relative survival rates of patients with all malignant cancers in the Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship who were diagnosed with cancer during the period 1995-2007, which is when the Swietokrzyskie Cancer Centre began and developed its comprehensive oncological care in the region. 41,104 patients from the Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship who were registered in the Swietokrzyskie Cancer Registry in that period of time were included in the analysis of the survival rates. Relative survival was calculated using the Hakulinen and Brenner methods. These methods are recommended by the European Network of Cancer Registries for the population-based cancer registries where cause of death is unknown. The results were referred to the European average of relative survival rates calculated for all malignant cancers combined, as well as selected cancers calculated within the EUROCARE-4 project. The survival rates of patients diagnosed from 2003 to 2007 do not differ significantly from the European average, and are even higher for both sexes combined (56.0% v. 48.3%), and cancers of cervix and corpus uteri, as well as lung cancer for men and women combined. The 5-year relative survival rates for all malignances of patients in the Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship diagnosed from 2003 to 2007 increased by 9.7 percentage points in comparison to previous years 1995-2002. A significant improvement was seen in prostate cancer (28.1 percentage points), rectum cancer (13.1) and colon cancer (11.0). The improvement of the survival rates reflects the improvement in curability due to the development of the Swietokrzyskie Cancer Centre.