[Disease burden of famale breast cancer in China]

To analyze the data on burden of female breast cancer in China.

The data from Chinese Cancer Registry Annual Report 2012, three national death cause surveys in China, Disease Surveillance Points system(DSP), China Health Statistics Yearbook, GLOBOCAN 2012, Cancer Incidence in Five Continents(CI5), WHO Mortality Database and Global Burden of Disease(GBD)2013 were used to extract the incidence, mortality and disability-adjusted life years(DALY)of female breast cancer and analyze related trends in China.

The data from three national death cause surveys showed that the crude mortality of breast cancer doubled from year 1973-1975 to year 2004-2005, the increase was higher in urban area(127.4%)than in rural area(75.2%). WHO Mortality Database showed that average annual percentage change(AAPC)of breast cancer crude mortality increased by 3.1%(P<0.05)from 1987 to 2000, and China Health Statistics Yearbook showed that the AAPC in urban females increased by 2.7% from 2002 to 2013(P<0.05), whereas the AAPC in rural females showed no significant change(P>0.05). It was estimated by GLOBOCAN 2012 that in 2012 the age-standardized incidence and age-standardized mortality of breast cancer in China was 22.1 per 100 000 and 5.4 per 100 000, respectively. The age-specific incidence began to increase obviously at age of 40 years and peaked at age 45-59 years(GLOBOCAN 2012). Chinese Cancer Registry Annual Report 2012 showed that breast cancer incidence and mortality were 2-fold and 1.5-fold higher in urban females than in rural females in 2009. It was estimated that the breast cancer case number and death number in females in China would increase to 251 600 and 75 900, respectively, more increose in age group ≥65 years. Only GBD 2013 reported DALY, the DALY caused by breast cancer in China was 1 666.0 thousand in 2013, accounting for 12.7% of global DALY, and increased by 56.7% from 1990(1 062.6 thousand), the peak age-specific DALY rate was at 50 to 59 years, and national average ratio of years lived with disability(YLD)was 8.7%(ranging from 8.1% to 9.0% at provincial level).

Burden of disease caused by female breast cancer is becoming increasingly severe in China, especially in urban areas. It is necessary to strengthen the population-based prevention and control programs and further studies may focus on DALY.