Disparities and Trends in Genitourinary Cancer Incidence and Mortality in the USA

Previous studies have reported on incidence and mortality patterns for individual genitourinary cancers in the USA. However, these studies addressed individual cancer types rather than genitourinary cancers overall.

To comprehensively examine disparities and trends in the incidence and mortality for the four major genitourinary cancers (bladder, kidney, prostate, and testis) in the USA.

We obtained incidence data from the National Cancer Institute 22-registry Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database and the US Cancer Statistics database (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics to examine cross-sectional and temporal trends in incidence and death rates stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, and county.

Age-adjusted incidence and death rates were calculated using SEER*Stat software. Temporal trends were analyzed using Joinpoint regression for a two-sided significance level of p < 0.05.

Incidence and mortality rates for bladder and kidney cancers were two to four times higher for men than for women. Among non-Hispanic White individuals, the highest incidence rates were found in the Northeast for bladder cancer and in Appalachia for kidney cancer, whereas the highest death rates for prostate cancer were found in the West. Incidence rates increased for cancers of the kidney and testis and for advanced-stage prostate cancer in almost all racial/ethnic populations and for bladder cancer in the American Indian/Alaska Native population. Death rates increased for testicular cancer in the Hispanic population and stabilized for prostate cancer among White and Asian American/Pacific Islander men after a steady decline since the early 1990s. Study limitations include misclassification of race/ethnicity on medical records and death certificates.

We found persistent sociodemographic disparities and unfavorable trends in incidence or mortality for all four major genitourinary cancers. Future studies should elucidate the reasons for these patterns.

In the USA, rates of cancer cases are increasing for kidney, testis, and advanced-stage prostate cancers in the overall population, and for bladder cancer in the American Indian/Alaska Native population. Differences in the rates by sex and race/ethnicity remain.