Years of life lost as a measure of cancer burden in Colombia, 1997-2012

Introduction: There is hardly any information regarding years of life lost due to cancer in Colombia. Objective: To quantify total and average years of life lost due to cancer in Colombia, and to investigate changes in this burden between 1997 and 2012. Materials and methods: We obtained sex-specific data on age distribution, remaining life expectancy, deaths due to specific cancers and total number of deaths from the Colombian Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísticas. We calculated years of life lost based on each individual's age at death and the remaining life expectancy at that age as for average years of life, we divided these by the number of deaths due to specific cancers. Results: The total number of cancer deaths increased by 33% between 1997 and 2012, comprising 15% of male and 20% of female deaths in the period 2010-2012. Total years of life lost due to cancer increased by 25.1% for males and 31.1% for females over the study period. The highest increases (> 40%) were observed for colorectal, pancreas and kidney cancers in both sexes, for melanomas and bladder cancer in men, and for breast and ovarian cancer in women. Trends in average years of life lost were stable. Almost half (48-50%) of the years of life lost due to childhood cancers were due to leukemia. Conclusion: Cancer is an increasing health burden in Colombia. The high average years of life lost illustrate the poor prognosis of the disease compared to other countries. Primary prevention, early detection, and adequate and timely treatments are needed to change this situation.