Background. In Brazil, cancer is the second most common cause of death, and the most incident types of cancer are prostate, breast, lung, colon and rectum. This study aimed to analyze the role of period, geographic and socio demographic factors in cancer-related mortality by prostate, breast, cervix, colon, lung and esophagus cancer in Brazilians capitals from 2000 to 2015.
Methods. Data from 2005-2015 cancer mortality and resident population were collected from Information Technology Department of the Brazilian Unified Health System (DATASUS), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Brazilian Mortality Information (SIM). State capitals were the study’s analytic units. A multilevel Poisson model was used to estimate the adjusted risk of cancer mortality (prostate, breast, cervix, colon, lung and esophageal cancers). The adjusted models included the following variables as fixed effects: age, Gross Domestic Product, region, year squared and year of death.
Results. A statistically significant difference was found between mortality rates by gender for colon, lung and esophageal cancers. The highest mortality rates were observed in the older age group, especially for prostate and lung cancers, which values were higher than 100 deaths per 100,000. Comparing with those aged 40-59 years, men older than 59 years showed 47 times higher mortality risk for prostate cancer, 8-9 times higher for lung or colon cancers and four times higher for esophageal cancer. Compared with those aged 40-59 years, women older than 59 years old showed 5-7 times higher mortality risk for esophageal, lung or colon cancers and 2-3 times higher for breast or cervix cancers.
Conclusions. Colon cancer mortality rate increased from 2000 to 2015 for both genders, while breast and lung cancers mortality increased over the period only for women. In both genders, the highest mortality risk for lung and esophageal cancers was observed in Southern capitals. Northern capitals had a lower risk of death by prostate and breast cancer and a higher risk of death by cervix cancer.