The objective of this study was to describe, for Santa Catarina, the mortality ratios and coefficients, crude and standardized for breast cancer. In addition, we analyzed the seasonal trends of the standardized coefficients from 1980 to 2001. Variables analyzed included age and basic cause of the death, codified according to the International Classification of Illnesses and year of the death. Proportional mortality, as well as crude and standardized coefficients of mortality for reast cancer (direct method, using as standard to the world-wide population) were calculated. Simple linear regression was sed to analyse trends for standardized mortality coefficients for breast cancer. Linear trend was considered statistically significant when the probability of observed rend occurring by chance was less than 0,05. We observed both absolute and elative growth of deaths from breast cancer in Santa Catarina. Proportional mortality for breast cancer increased 10.61% in the period. The crude coefficient of mortality for breast cancer increased 85.18% and the standardized coefficient increased 38,72%. The standardized coefficients of mortality for breast cancer, had an annual increment of 0,19 deaths for 100.000 woman-year and this observation was statistically significant. The present study identified a significantly rising
trend for mortality for breast cancer from 1980 to 2001.

Keywords: 1.Cancer;
2. Breast;
3. Mortality.