In this brief report, we offer a concise overview on current cancer epidemiology garnered from the official databases of World Health Organization and American Cancer Society and provide recent information on frequency, mortality, and survival expectancy of the 15 leading types of cancers worldwide. Overall, cancer poses the highest clinical, social, and economic burden in terms of cause-specific Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) among all human diseases. The overall 0–74 years risk of developing cancer is 20.2% (22.4% in men and 18.2% in women, respectively). A total number of 18 million new cases have been diagnosed in 2018, the most frequent of which are lung (2.09 million cases), breast (2.09 million cases), and prostate (1.28 million cases) cancers. Beside sex-specific malignancies, the ratio of frequency between men and women is >1 for all cancers, except thyroid (i.e., 0.30). As concerns mortality, cancer is the second worldwide cause of death (8.97 million deaths) after ischemic heart disease, but will likely become the first in 2060 (~18.63 million deaths). Lung, liver, and stomach are the three most deadly cancers in the general population, while lung and breast cancers are the leading causes of cancer related-mortality in men and women, respectively. Prostate and thyroid cancers have the best prognosis, with 5-year survival ~100%, while esophagus, liver, and especially pancreas cancers have the worst prognosis, typically <20% at 5 years. We hope that this report will provide fertile ground for addressing health-care interventions aimed at preventing, diagnosing, and managing cancer around the world.

Current Cancer Epidemiology

Lippi, Giuseppe
;
Mattiuzzi, Camilla
2019-01-01

Abstract

In this brief report, we offer a concise overview on current cancer epidemiology garnered from the official databases of World Health Organization and American Cancer Society and provide recent information on frequency, mortality, and survival expectancy of the 15 leading types of cancers worldwide. Overall, cancer poses the highest clinical, social, and economic burden in terms of cause-specific Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) among all human diseases. The overall 0–74 years risk of developing cancer is 20.2% (22.4% in men and 18.2% in women, respectively). A total number of 18 million new cases have been diagnosed in 2018, the most frequent of which are lung (2.09 million cases), breast (2.09 million cases), and prostate (1.28 million cases) cancers. Beside sex-specific malignancies, the ratio of frequency between men and women is >1 for all cancers, except thyroid (i.e., 0.30). As concerns mortality, cancer is the second worldwide cause of death (8.97 million deaths) after ischemic heart disease, but will likely become the first in 2060 (~18.63 million deaths). Lung, liver, and stomach are the three most deadly cancers in the general population, while lung and breast cancers are the leading causes of cancer related-mortality in men and women, respectively. Prostate and thyroid cancers have the best prognosis, with 5-year survival ~100%, while esophagus, liver, and especially pancreas cancers have the worst prognosis, typically <20% at 5 years. We hope that this report will provide fertile ground for addressing health-care interventions aimed at preventing, diagnosing, and managing cancer around the world.
2019
cancer, epidemiology, statistics
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
J Epidemiol Global Health 2019_02.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Versione dell'editore
Licenza: Creative commons
Dimensione 828.19 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
828.19 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/1007394
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? 208
  • Scopus 653
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 589
social impact