Global, Regional, and National Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years of Life Lost, Years
Lived With Disability, and Disability-Adjusted Life-Years for 29 Cancer Groups, 1990
to 2017
Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now widely recognized as a threat
to global development. The latest United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs reaffirmed
this observation and also highlighted the slow progress in meeting the 2011 Political
Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the third
Sustainable Development Goal. Lack of situational analyses, priority setting, and
budgeting have been identified as major obstacles in achieving these goals. All of
these have in common that they require information on the local cancer epidemiology.
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study is uniquely poised to provide these crucial
data.To describe cancer burden for 29 cancer groups in 195 countries from 1990 through
2017 to provide data needed for cancer control planning.We used the GBD study estimation
methods to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years
of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). Results are presented at
the national level as well as by Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator
of income, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. We also analyzed the
influence of the epidemiological vs the demographic transition on cancer incidence.In
2017, there were 24.5 million incident cancer cases worldwide (16.8 million without
nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC]) and 9.6 million cancer deaths. The majority of cancer
DALYs came from years of life lost (97%), and only 3% came from years lived with disability.
The odds of developing cancer were the lowest in the low SDI quintile (1 in 7) and
the highest in the high SDI quintile (1 in 2) for both sexes. In 2017, the most common
incident cancers in men were NMSC (4.3 million incident cases); tracheal, bronchus,
and lung (TBL) cancer (1.5 million incident cases); and prostate cancer (1.3 million
incident cases). The most common causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for men were TBL
cancer (1.3 million deaths and 28.4 million DALYs), liver cancer (572 000 deaths and
15.2 million DALYs), and stomach cancer (542 000 deaths and 12.2 million DALYs). For
women in 2017, the most common incident cancers were NMSC (3.3 million incident cases),
breast cancer (1.9 million incident cases), and colorectal cancer (819 000 incident
cases). The leading causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for women were breast cancer
(601 000 deaths and 17.4 million DALYs), TBL cancer (596 000 deaths and 12.6 million
DALYs), and colorectal cancer (414 000 deaths and 8.3 million DALYs).The national
epidemiological profiles of cancer burden in the GBD study show large heterogeneities,
which are a reflection of different exposures to risk factors, economic settings,
lifestyles, and access to care and screening. The GBD study can be used by policy
makers and other stakeholders to develop and improve national and local cancer control
in order to achieve the global targets and improve equity in cancer care.
