Photo courtesy of NIH
In trying to estimate the global cancer burden, researchers found that cases of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) have decreased worldwide over the last 2 decades.
The team studied 28 cancer types in 188 countries, and HL was the only malignancy whose incidence decreased from 1990 to 2013.
And the number of HL deaths in 2013 was comparatively low. When the researchers ranked cancers according to the number of global deaths, HL was 26th on the list of 28.
The researchers disclosed these results in JAMA Oncology.
The team collected data from cancer registries, vital records, verbal autopsy reports, and other sources to estimate the global cancer burden.
The data suggested that, in 2013, there were 14.9 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million cancer deaths worldwide. The proportion of cancer deaths as part of all deaths increased from 12% in 1990 to 15% in 2013.
The most common malignancy in men was prostate cancer, with 1.4 million cases in 2013. For women, it was breast cancer, with 1.8 million cases in 2013.
Tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancers were the leading cause of cancer death in men and women, with 1.6 million deaths in 2013.
Hematologic malignancies
Globally, the age-standardized incidence of HL per 100,000 people decreased by 34% during the time period studied. Cases of HL fell from about 103,000 in 1990 to 93,000 in 2013.
When the researchers ranked cancer types according to the number of global deaths in 2013, HL came in 26th. There were about 24,000 HL deaths in 2013—14,000 among men and 10,000 among women.
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) came in 11th for global cancer deaths in 2013. There were about 226,000 NHL deaths—133,000 among men and 92,000 among women.
In addition, the incidence of NHL more than doubled from 1990 to 2013, rising from about 227,000 to 465,000. According to 2013 data, 1 in 103 men and 1 in 151 women developed NHL between birth and 79 years of age.
The researchers observed an increase in cases of multiple myeloma (MM) as well, from about 63,000 in 1990 to 117,000 in 2013.
In 2013, there were about 79,000 MM deaths—42,000 among men and 37,000 among women. MM ranked 19th on the list of global cancer deaths in 2013.
Leukemia ranked 9th on the list. There were about 265,000 leukemia deaths in 2013—149,000 among men and 116,000 among women.
Cases of leukemia increased from 297,000 in 1990 to 414,000 in 2013. According to 2013 data, 1 in 127 men and 1 in 203 women developed leukemia between birth and 79 years of age.
This research shows that cancer remains a major threat to people’s health around the world, said study author Christina Fitzmaurice, MD, of the University of Washington in Seattle.
“Cancer prevention, screening, and treatment programs are costly,” she noted, “and it is very important for countries to know which cancers cause the highest disease burden in order to allocate scarce resources appropriately.”
