Years of life lost due to cancer in Ecuador

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. In the Americas, it is also one of the leading causes of death. In Ecuador, studies on the burden of disease are limited and none analyze or estimate the burden of all types of cancer in a single study. Therefore, the aim of this study is to estimate the years of life lost prematurely due to cancer in Ecuador from 2014 to 2022.

Cross-sectional observational analysis study. The databases of general deaths from the years 2014 to 2022, population projections from 2014 to 2021 and the population census for the year 2022 of the Republic of Ecuador were used. Deaths registered with ICD-10 code C00-C96 were included as deaths from cancer. The mortality rate and years of life lost prematurely due to cancer were estimated, considering the life tables of the Coale-Demeny West model and a standard time discount of 3 % was implemented without weighting by age.

An increase in mortality and premature years of life lost was observed in the period 2014-2019, but in 2020 a reduction in mortality was seen in several types of cancer. In 2021 and 2022 mortality increased again, reaching the maximum peak of mortality and premature years of life lost in the entire study. Approximately 1,3 million years of life lost prematurely due to cancer were estimated. The types of cancer with the greatest number of years of life lost prematurely were malignant tumors of the stomach (188.180), uterus (117.142), which include both uterine cancer and cervical cancer, and leukemia (107.440). In men, in descending order, these were tumors of the stomach (101.112), prostate (67.624) and leukemia (55.654), while in women, these were malignant tumors of the uterus (117.142), breast (100.217) and stomach (87.067).

The results of this study provide a broader basis for debate on public health policies, efficient allocation of resources, and enable monitoring of cancer and prevention strategies over time.