Complete and limited duration cancer prevalence estimates.

Prevalence is an indicator of primary interest in public health because it measures the burden of cancer in a population and on the health care system. Prevalence is defined as thenumber or percent of people alive on a certain date in a population who previously had a diagnosis of the disease. It includes new (incidence) and pre-existing cases and is a function of both past incidence and survival. Information on prevalence can be used for health planning,resource allocation and an estimate of cancer survivorship. In past reports of the Cancer Statistics Review, US cancer prevalence was estimated by multiplying the Connecticut cancer prevalence proportions to the US population. This year, US cancer prevalence is estimated by applying SEER-9 and SEER-11 prevalence proportions to the US population. SEER proportion rates are more representative of the US and permit estimation of prevalence by racial/ethnic groups. Other changes with respect to previous reports are in the methods for tumor inclusion and complete prevalence calculation.