An updated profile of the cancer burden, patterns and trends in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Background Cancer is a leading cause of disease and death in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Contemporary data on the cancer burden aims to inform effective cancer policies; this article provides an update and benchmarking of national cancer incidence and mortality estimates for the year 2020, alongside recent mortality trends in the region.

Methods The number of new cancer cases and deaths were extracted from the GLOBOCAN 2020 database developed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and mortality data over time from IARC's cancer mortality database, New cancer cases, deaths and corresponding age-standardized rates per 100,000 person-years are presented. Random fluctuations in mortality trends by country, sex and cancer site were smoothed using LOWESS regression.

Findings An estimated total of 1.5 million new cancer cases and 700,000 deaths occur annually in LAC, with corresponding incidence and mortality rates of 186.5 and 86.6 per 100,000. The most common cancers in 2020 were prostate (15%), breast (14%), colorectal (9%), lung (7%) and stomach (5%). Lung cancer remained the leading cause of cancer death (12%), though rates varied substantially between countries. The mortality trends of infectious-related cancers tended to decline in most countries, while rates of cancer types linked to westernization were mainly increasing. Assuming rates remain unchanged, the cancer burden in LAC will increase by 67% reaching 2.4 million new cases annually by 2040.

Interpretation The cancer patterns reflect important underlying sociodemographic changes occurring over the last decades. With an increasing burden anticipated over the next decades in this region, there is a need to plan oncological service provision accordingly.