Table 6.

Demographic characteristics for cancer patients diagnosed between 1992-2005 with the four most common cancers, all cancers combined and for people without cancer^a

	All cancers		Breast (female)		Colorectal		Lung		Prostate		People without cancer b
	N=1108085		N=140873		N=135745		N=165345		N=200332		N=100000
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%
Age
66-74	479,409	45.4	56,110	45.4	51,349	37.3	80,304	48.4	116,236	54.5	45,382	45.4
75-84	436,637	41.3	50,785	41.1	60,075	43.7	69,483	41.8	81,033	38.0	41,323	41.3
85+	140,488	13.3	16,785	13.6	26,112	19.0	16,266	9.8	16,042	7.5	13,295	13.3
Sex
Female	490,430	46.4	123,680	100.0	74,873	54.4	77,249	46.5			46,414	46.4
Male	566,104	53.6			62,663	45.6	88,804	53.5	213,311	100.0	53,586	53.6
Race
Unknown	3,609	0.3	314	0.3	491	0.4	719	0.4	441	0.2	242	0.2
White	928,230	87.9	111,449	90.1	120,220	87.4	145,548	87.7	182,425	85.5	87,551	87.6
Black	77,066	7.3	7,698	6.2	10,138	7.4	12,433	7.5	20,788	9.8	6,770	6.8
Other	47,629	4.5	4,219	3.4	6,687	4.9	7,353	4.4	9,657	4.5	5,437	5.4

Abbreviatons: SEER, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results.

^aSource: National Cancer Institute SEER-Medicare linked database (Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Utah, and New Mexico, and the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, Greater Bay, Detroit, Atlanta, and Seattle-Puget Sound). and 5% random sample of cancer-free Medicare beneficiaries.

^bRandom sample of 100,000 persons (controls) chosen by frequency matching to all sites combined cancer cohort by calendar year, age and sex. Controls can be sampled only once in a calendar year, but can be sampled repeatedly across multiple years.