Pancreatic cancer: overview of descriptive epidemiology

Pancreatic cancer mortality rates have been increasing in high-income countries between the 1950s and the 1980s, and have leveled off or declined thereafter, particularly in men. To provide a global overview of recent pancreatic cancer mortality, we analyzed official death of the world certification data derived from the World Health Organization for 35 European countries and 19 other countries over the period 1980-2007. In 2007, the highest mortality rates from pancreatic cancer were in the Baltic countries, and some central/eastern and northern European countries (over 9.5/100 000 men and 6/100 000 women), whereas the lowest ones were in Latin America and Hong Kong (below 5/100 000 men and 3/100 000 women). Japan, the USA, Russia and the European Union (EU), as well as the largest countries in the EU, had rates around 7-9/100 000 men and 5-6/100 000 women. In the early 2000s, rates have been approximately stable in many European countries, as in the USA, Japan, and Australia. In Nordic countries and the UK, where declines in rates have been observed between the 1980s and the 1990s, mortality from pancreatic cancer has tended to rise over most recent calendar years. Some persisting rises were still found in men from a few countries of southern and central/eastern Europe (with low rates in the past), as well as in the EU overall, and in women from European and Asian countries. Recent trends were generally more favorable in young adults (30-49 yr), suggesting that overall trends are likely to improve in the near future.