Mortality, Morbidity, Survival, and Burden of Top 9 Cancers in a Developing Country

Cancer is one of the most important leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. This study aimed to calculate the burden of 9 common cancers in the population covered by Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran in 2010-2011. We calculated disability adjusted life years (DALYs ) for each of nine cancers according to the sex and age groups of (0-4, 5-14, 15-29, 30-44, 45-59, 60-69, 70-79, and ≥ 80 years) using disease modeling (DisMod) version II software. The population-based data used in this study is mostly from cancer registries. The final estimates for the survival time were derived by combining several information sources. We applied r = 0.03 discounting and β = 0.04 age weighting. In our study, the standard life expectancy considered 80 years for men and 82.5 for women. This study shows that the most years life lost (YLL) related to gastric, leukemia and lung cancers are 10116, 9564 and 7061 respectively. Cancers with the most years lost due to disability (YLD) were breast, brain and esophageal cancers (594, 506 and 460). The most DALY related to gastric, leukemia and lung cancers (10516, 9803 and 722). The maximum DALY was for breast cancer (1550) seen in women aged 30-44 years old. It can be concluded that the YLL (93%) has a major role in the burden of diseases in developing countries. Better strategies for improving the prevention and screening program are really needed in developing countries.