Cancer led to 4 million potential life years lost in 2017

Cancer deaths lead to 4 million potential life years lost in 2017 in the United States, with cancers occurring in younger patients accounting for a disproportionate amount of the burden, according to the study results..

“The potential life years lost is an estimate of the average years a person would have lived had he not died prematurely”, Minkyo Song, MD, PhD, researcher at NCI said in a press release. “Given that cancer is the leading cause of death in young people under the age of 80, it is important to study the effect of cancer death rates among young people.”

Cancer caused nearly 600,000 deaths in the United States in 2017, making it the second leading cause of death behind heart disease. The most common cancer-related deaths occur from lung (men, 21%; women, 24%), colorectal (men and women, 9% each), breast (women, 15%), and of the prostate (10%).

Although cancer mortality rates provide insight into the burden of cancer and progress in prevention and control, these estimates are disproportionately biased towards deaths occurring in old age, according to the study’s background.

Therefore, Song and colleagues sought to describe the potential years of life lost, a metric that reflects the impact of cancer deaths occurring at a younger age by estimating the average years a person would have lived if they had not died prematurely.

Researchers used the U.S. national death certificate and racial and ethnic data from 1990 to 2017 to calculate potential life years lost – defined as the sum of total life years lost before age 75 – and potential life years. lost to individual death in 2017 for 45 common cancer categories.

Overall, the results – published in Epidemiology, biomarkers and cancer prevention – showed that cancer-related deaths resulted in 4,280,128 potential life years lost before age 75 in the United States in 2017.

The greatest loss of potential years of life occurred due to the death of lung or bronchus (20.8%), colorectal (9.6%), breast (9.4%), pancreas (6.6%) and liver or intrahepatic bile duct (5.4%).

The researchers noted that these data indicate that cancers with the highest potential for life years lost are also generally related to overall cancer mortality rates, with the exception of prostate cancer, which accounts for 5.1% of deaths and 2% of the potential life years lost.

“Many of the deaths caused by this cancer have occurred in old age, resulting in fewer [potential years of life lost]”Song said.

The researchers also measured the potential years of life lost to individual death, which may help better describe the burden of rare cancers among young people.

The greatest loss of potential years per individual death occurred due to testicular cancers (mean, 34 years per death); bones or joints (26.4 years); other endocrine sites, including the thymus (25.2 years); uterine cervix (20.7 years); and soft problem, including heart (19.4 years).

The researchers also found that certain ethnic and racial groups accounted for a disproportionate share of the burden of premature cancer death, with 78% of all cancer deaths but only 70% of the potential life years lost occurring among individuals. whites. In contrast, 7% of all cancer deaths but 10% of potential life years lost occurred among Hispanic individuals and 12% of all cancer deaths and 15% of potential life years lost it occurred among black individuals.

“The potential years of life lost are a useful ‘complementary measure’ to cancer death rates,” Song said. Together, they provide a more detailed picture of cancer’s social and economic balance sheet. The potential years of life lost can be used to estimate the impact of cancer death in younger populations. This metric highlights the enormous loss of life due to some cancers that occur at a younger age, even if they rarely occur.