Table 1.
Incidence of Suicide Among Patients With Cancer by Demographic and Tumor Characteristics
| Characteristic | Patients With Cancer in SEER
|
Suicides
|
Suicides per 100,000 Person-Years* | SMR*† | 95% CI | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | ||||
| Sex | |||||||
| Male | 1,728,990 | 48.1 | 4,636 | 79.4 | 59.7 | 2.09 | 2.03 to 2.15 |
| Female | 1,865,760 | 51.9 | 1,202 | 20.6 | 10.7 | 1.48 | 1.40 to 1.57 |
| Race | |||||||
| White | 3,040,111 | 84.6 | 5,414 | 92.7 | 33.3 | 1.88 | 1.83 to 1.93 |
| Black | 311,960 | 8.7 | 174 | 3.0 | 13.5 | 1.72 | 1.48 to 2.00 |
| Other | 242,679 | 6.8 | 250 | 4.3 | 23.2 | 2.23 | 1.97 to 2.53 |
| Marital status | |||||||
| Unmarried | 1,319,454 | 36.7 | 2,129 | 36.5 | 37.1 | 2.18 | 2.09 to 2.28 |
| Married | 1,966,977 | 54.7 | 3,300 | 56.5 | 31.5 | 1.84 | 1.78 to 1.90 |
| Unknown | 308,319 | 8.6 | 409 | 7.0 | 23.1 | 1.22 | 1.10 to 1.34 |
| Stage at presentation | |||||||
| In situ | 307,766 | 8.6 | 364 | 6.2 | 16.1 | 0.80 | 0.72 to 0.89 |
| Localized | 1,446,700 | 40.2 | 2,595 | 44.5 | 25.1 | 1.56 | 1.50 to 1.62 |
| Regional | 733,294 | 20.4 | 1,216 | 20.8 | 36.1 | 2.21 | 2.08 to 2.33 |
| Distant | 704,695 | 19.6 | 892 | 15.3 | 65.3 | 4.08 | 3.81 to 4.35 |
| Unstaged/unknown | 403,295 | 11.2 | 771 | 13.2 | 59.4 | 3.59 | 3.34 to 3.85 |
| No. of primary tumors‡ | |||||||
| Single | 2,815,657 | 78.3 | 4,572 | 78.3 | 33.5 | 1.94 | 1.91 to 2.02 |
| Multiple | 778,736 | 21.7 | 1,265 | 21.7 | 25.2 | 1.63 | 1.54 to 1.72 |
| Year of diagnosis | |||||||
| 1973-1982 | 789,249 | 22.0 | 1,885 | 32.3 | 32.7 | 1.83 | 1.75 to 1.92 |
| 1983-1992 | 1,147,389 | 31.9 | 2,407 | 41.2 | 31.9 | 1.94 | 1.87 to 2.02 |
| 1993-2002 | 1,658,112 | 46.1 | 1,546 | 25.5 | 29.3 | 1.83 | 1.74 to 1.93 |
| All patients with cancer | 3,594,750 | 5,838 | 31.4 | 1.88 | 1.83 to 1.93 | ||
Abbreviations: SEER, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results; SMR, standardized mortality ratio.
Adjusted to the age distribution in the population served by the SEER program.
For the categories of sex and race, SMR reference population was the specific category in the US subpopulation (eg, the SMR for males is the observed number of suicides in men with cancer divided by the expected number of suicides based on the rate in men in the general population). For marital status, stage at presentation, number of primary tumors, and year of diagnosis, SMR reference population is the entire general US population from 1969 through 2002.
A total of 357 persons had an unknown number of primary tumors. There was one suicide in this group.