RT Journal
A1 Biau DJ, Porcher R
T1 BReast cancer mortality and age at diagnosis
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2012
FD May 16
VO 307
IS 19
SP 2023
OP 2024
DO 10.1001/jama.2012.3613
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2012.3613
AB 
Classifying patients on the basis of whether there was evidence of breast cancer at the time of their death may be misleading. For instance, if an 80-year-old woman with a known pulmonary metastasis dies, her death will be attributed to breast cancer. However, without a postmortem examination, it is not possible to determine the exact cause of death, which may be due to a non–disease-specific condition such as unstable coronary artery disease. If a 36-year-old woman with breast cancer dies in a motor vehicle crash, it will be impossible without a postmortem examination to definitively determine whether the death is due to the motor vehicle crash or to a complication of her malignancy, such as a pulmonary tumor embolism.2