Researchers have recently published some new figures on the number of people affected by pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) in Europe.¹ The incidence rate, the number of people diagnosed with PMP per million each year, was previously approximated at between one and two. This rate of incidence was simply an approximation and has never been challenged. The prevalence, the number of people with PMP at a given point in time, has not previously been estimated.
The study, produced by a team from Oslo in Norway and Basingstoke in England, used epidemiological data from the two countries to calculate a minimum incidence rate based on the number of patients having their first surgery for PMP. The prevalence rate was then determined by a method that considered the incidence, death, and cure rates in a multi-year analysis that accounted for the increasing population of Europe over a 10-year period.
The study calculates an incidence rate of 3.2 people per million per year, with a corresponding estimated prevalence rate of 22 people per million per year. By this calculation, 11,736 people in Europe were estimated to be living with PMP in 2018.
The paper has just been published by Springer Nature in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. You can read more about it here: “Estimating the Prevalence of Pseudomyxoma Peritonei in Europe Using a Novel Statistical Method”
¹Patrick-Brown, T.D.J.H., Carr, N.J., Swanson, D.M. et al. Estimating the Prevalence of Pseudomyxoma Peritonei in Europe Using a Novel Statistical Method. Ann Surg Oncol (2020). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-020-08655-8. Accessed June 2020.