Patterns and trends in cancer mortality in Colombia 1984-2008

Cancer has become increasingly acknowledged as a public health issue in Colombia. Rates of the most common malignancies have been generally increasing. We update an evaluation of mortality trends in the major cancers in Colombia one decade ago, discussing the trends in the context of cancer control.

We calculated the annual age-standardized mortality rates for the major cancer sites by sex between 1984 and 2008; we also present the estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) for the entire period and for the last decade.

There was an average of 32,000 cancer deaths annually in Colombia in the period studied. Overall cancer mortality rates decreased slightly in both men and women. The four most common sites of cancer death among men were stomach (17.6%), prostate (15.0%), lung (14.8%) and colorectum (6.5%). In women, the most common cancer sites were breast (12.3%), cervix (12.1%), stomach (11.5%) and lung (9.2%). Colorectal and CNS cancers exhibited the greatest increases (EAPC of 2.0% and 3.4% respectively) while the largest declines were seen for cancers of the larynx, stomach and oesophagus (EAPC between -3% and -4%). In the last decade, the greatest declines were seen in cervical cancer mortality rates (EAPC = -3.2).

The slight decrease in mortality trends from all cancers combined is partially driven by the strong declines in mortality of stomach and cervical cancer. It may be still too early to properly evaluate trends in mortality due to other cancers and the relative impact of changing access to health care in Colombia.