LAUSR

209Background: More than half of all women with breast cancer are diagnosed during working age. We present a new measure of clinical and public health relevance to estimate the loss in working years after a breast cancer diagnosis. Methods: Women of working age diagnosed with breast cancer between 1997 and 2012 were identified in the Breast Cancer Data Base Sweden (N = 19,661), together with a breast cancer-free comparison cohort (N = 81,303). Women were followed until permanent exit from the labour market (defined as receipt of disability pension, old-age retirement or death) or censoring. Using flexible parametric survival modelling, the loss in working years was calculated as the difference in the remaining years in the work force between women with and women without breast cancer. Results: The loss in working years was most pronounced in women of younger ages and in women with advanced stage disease. Women aged 50 years at diagnosis with stage I disease lost on average 0.6 years (95% CI, 0.4-0.8) of t...