Photo by Rhoda Baer
A new study suggests that leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) are among the top 10 cancers with the greatest burden (most years of healthy life lost) in the US.
The research also showed that the burden of different cancer types varied between patients belonging to different racial/ethnic groups.
For example, the contribution of leukemia to the overall cancer burden was twice as high in Hispanics as it was in non-Hispanic blacks. The same was true for NHL.
Joannie Lortet-Tieulent, of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia, and her colleagues conducted this study and reported the results in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The researchers calculated the burden of cancer in the US in 2011 for 24 cancer types. They calculated burden using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which combine cancer incidence, mortality, survival, and quality of life into a summary indicator.
The results suggested the burden of cancer in 2011 was over 9.8 million DALYs, which was equally shared between men and women—4.9 million DALYs for each sex.
DALYs lost to cancer were mostly related to premature death due to cancer (91%). The remaining 9% were related to impaired quality of life because of the disease or its treatment, or other disease-related issues.
Top 10 contributors
The researchers calculated the proportion of DALYs lost for each of the cancer types. And they found that lung cancer was the largest contributor to the loss of healthy years, accounting for 24% of the burden (2.4 million DALYs).
The second biggest contributor to the loss of healthy years was breast cancer (10%), followed by colorectal cancer (9%), pancreatic cancer (6%), prostate cancer (5%), leukemia (4%), liver cancer (4%), brain cancer (3%), NHL (3%), and ovarian cancer (3%).
The researchers also calculated the proportion of DALYs lost from the top 10 cancer types according to race/ethnicity.
They found the contribution of leukemia to the loss of healthy years was greatest for Hispanics (6%), followed by non-Hispanic Asians (5%), non-Hispanic whites (4%), and non-Hispanic blacks (3%).
The contribution of NHL to the loss of healthy years was greatest for Hispanics (4%), followed by non-Hispanic Asians/non-Hispanic whites (3% for both), and non-Hispanic blacks (2%).
DALYs by race/ethnicity
The researchers found that, overall, the cancer burden was highest in non-Hispanic blacks, followed by non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic Asians. However, this pattern was not consistent across the different cancer types.
Age-standardized DALYs lost (per 100,000 individuals) were as follows:
All cancers combined
3588 for non-Hispanic blacks
2898 for non-Hispanic whites
1978 for Hispanics
1798 for non-Hispanic Asians.
Leukemia
115 for non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites
98 for Hispanics
82 for non-Hispanic Asians.
NHL
93 for non-Hispanic whites
86 for non-Hispanic blacks
78 for Hispanics
60 for non-Hispanic Asians.
Hodgkin lymphoma
11 for non-Hispanic blacks
10 for non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics
3 for non-Hispanic Asians.
Myeloma
93 for non-Hispanic blacks
43 for non-Hispanic whites
42 for Hispanics
26 for non-Hispanic Asians.
The researchers noted that, despite these differences, the cancer burden in all races/ethnicities was driven by years of life lost. They said this highlights the need to prevent deaths by improving prevention, early detection, and treatment of cancers.
