National and subnational mortality of urological cancers in Iran, 1990-2015

To study trends of urological cancers mortalities in Iran between 1990 and 2015 as a part of a larger project named national and subnational burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors.

The primary dataset of this project comprises data of national death registration system. Cause-specific mortality fraction for each age, sex, province, and year group was calculated using a two-stage mixed effects and spatiotemporal models, and then these fractions were applied to all-cause mortality rates, obtained from a parallel study to estimate mortality rates attributable to each cause.

In 2015, urological cancers constituted 8% of cancer-related deaths in Iran, and number of deaths due to prostate, bladder, testicular, and kidney and other urinary organs cancers were estimated as 2,128 (1,565-2,891), 297 (230-385), 301 (144-639), and 195 (143-267), respectively. Our estimates show that age-standardized death rates (ASDRs) of these cancers reached 6.8 (5-9.23), 0.47 (0.37-0.61), 0.96 (0.46-2.04), and 0.24 (0.18-0.33) deaths per 100,000 individuals in 2015, a reduction in the three latter cancers, from 4.09 (2.92-5.76), 13.04 (10.04-16.95), 1.23 (0.46-3.34), and 1.76 (1.28-2.42) deaths per 100,000 individuals in 1990, respectively.

In conclusion, despite disparities among different provinces, overall mortality rate of urological cancers decreased significantly since 1990s in Iran.