Mortality for pancreatic cancer throughout 2003-2022 in the US

We conducted an electronic search on the WONDER website using the combined ICD-10 code for pancreatic cancers throughout 2003-2022. The cumulative, age-adjusted mortality rate for pancreatic cancer (with 95% confidence interval; 95%CI) has increased steadily over the last 20 years, from 10.54 per 100,000 in 2003 to 11.24 per 100,000 in 2022. A clear deviation from the 20-year trend was observed in 2021, when the age-adjusted mortality rate rose by 3.2% compared to the previous year. The results of our analysis are consistent with previous findings on early-onset pancreatic cancer, showing that the mortality rate for pancreatic cancer, in contrast to other malignancies (e.g., lung, breast and colorectal cancers), has increased rather than decreasing in the US over the past 20 years, and that this surge has occurred primarily in the male sex and in the older population (i.e., individuals aged 55 years or older).