by Hui G. Cheng, Livingstone Aduse-Poku, Chelsey McGill, Oxana Palesh, Susan Hong Background The growing population of cancer survivors faces elevated risks of subsequent primary cancers (SPCs), yet temporal patterns in SPC incidence remain poorly understood.
This study aims to characterize age-, period-, and cohort-specific patterns in SPC incidence among US cancer survivors using population-based data. Methods and findings We conducted a retrospective cohort study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 8 registries, identifying 3.36 million individuals diagnosed with a first primary cancer between 1975 and 2019.
Survivors were followed through 2022 to estimate the incidence of SPCs. We used age–period–cohort analysis to estimate longitudinal age curves, cohort and period rate ratios, and annual percent changes in SPC incidence.
Analyses were stratified by sex and the five most common index cancer sites.During 29.5 million person‑years of follow‑up, 510,340 SPCs were observed.
PLOS Medicine published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 28 Apr 2026.
The item focuses on Subsequent primary cancer incidence among cancer survivors in the United States, 1975–2019: An age–period–cohort analysis.
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