Disease burden, risk factors, and trends of lip, oral cavity, pharyngeal cancers: A global analysis

BACKGROUND

Lip, oral and pharyngeal cancers make up a small percentage of total cancer cases worldwide and have reported lower rates of cancer-related deaths globally in 2020, but their 5-year survival rate in either early or advanced stages is different. The study evaluated the global incidence, mortality, risk factors, and temporal trends by age, gender, and geographical locations of lip, oral cavity, and pharyngeal cancer.

METHODS

Incidence and mortality rates were extracted from Cancer Incidence in Five Continents (CI5) volumes I-XI, the Nordic Cancer Registries (NORDCAN), the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, and the WHO IARC mortality database. Joinpoint regression was used to calculate the Average Annual Percentage Change to examine trends.

RESULTS

The highest incidence rates were found in Melanesia and South-Central Asia and mortality rates were 8.2 and 7.5. Risk factors associated with incidence and mortality included HDI, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, poor diet, and chronic health conditions such as hypertension. Increasing trends of incidence and mortality were observed in females from Malta; males aged 50 and above from the United Kingdom, and females aged 50 and above from Slovakia reporting the largest increase.

CONCLUSIONS

Although global incidence and mortality trends reported an overall decrease, significant increases were found for older age groups and female subjects. Incidence increase may be due to the growing prevalence of lifestyle, metabolic risk factors, and HPV infections, especially in developed countries.

Global incidence, mortality and temporal trends of cancer in children: A joinpoint regression analysis

BACKGROUND/METHODS

The Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Time Trends, Nordic Cancer Registries, Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results, WHO Mortality databases were assessed to extract the Age-Standardised Rates (ASR) of cancer incidence and mortality among children aged 0-14 years old. By using the ASRs, the country-specific Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC) and its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to determine the epidemiological cancer trend.

RESULTS

In 2020, the highest incidence of childhood cancer was found in countries with higher Human Development Index (HDI) (ASR = 15.7), yet the highest mortality was found in countries with lower HDIs (ASR = 4.8). As for incidence, seven countries had positive AAPC among boys; Slovakia (AAPC_2001-2010  = 4.98, 95% CI [1.66-8.40]), Ecuador (AAPC_2003-2012  = 4.07, 95% CI [0.67-7.59]) and Thailand (AAPC_2003-2012  = 3.69, 95% CI [0.37-7.11]) had the highest AAPC. Among girls, three countries had positive AAPC, which included Belarus (AAPC_2003-2012  = 3.18, 95% CI [1.11, 5.29]), Canada (AAPC_2003-2012  = 2.83, 95% CI [1.60, 4.07]) and Korea (AAPC_2003-2012  = 1.76, 95% CI [0.23-3.32]). There was an overall decreasing trend of mortality. However, increased mortality was observed in two countries: Ecuador for boys (AAPC_2007-2016  = 1.72, 95% CI [0.27-3.19]) and Austria for girls (AAPC_2008-2017  = 4.11, 95% CI [0.38-7.98]).

CONCLUSIONS

The largest mortality and mortality to incidence ratio of childhood cancer were found in low-income countries. There was a substantial increasing trend of childhood cancer incidence, while overall its mortality has been decreasing over the past decade. More studies are needed to confirm the drivers behind these epidemiologic trends.