8.2 Million Cancer Deaths Occurred in 2013, New Study Reveals

How many new cases of cancer should be expect? And how many occurred? Scientists have worked together to try to measure the global burden of cancer, and estimate there were 14.9 million new cases of cancer, 8.2 million deaths and 196.3 million years of a healthy life lost in 2013.

In this case, the Global Burden of Disease study by the Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration group provides a comprehensive assessment of new cancer cases and cancer-related death and disability. The researchers relied on cancer registries, vital records, verbal autopsy reports and other sources for cause-of-death data in a study of 28 cancers in 188 countries from 1990 to 2013.

From 1990 to 2013, the proportion of cancer deaths as a part of all deaths increased from 12 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2013. In addition, lost years of healthy life increased by 29 percent globally.

There were also differences between men and women developing cancer. Men were more likely to develop it between birth and age 79, with 1 in 3 men and '1 in 5 women developing cancer worldwide. The leaded causes of cancer death were tracheal, bronchus and lung (TBL) cancer at 1.6 million deaths. For women, breast cancer was the leading cause of lost years of healthy life globally while for men, it was lung cancer.

"In their global burden of disease (GBD) study, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), led by Murray and colleagues, developed a unique systematic analysis approach to assess global and regional causes of death, years of life lost and disability from disease and injury for countries around the world at all economic levels," write Benjamin O. Anderson of the University of Washington and John Flanigan of the Center for Global Health, National Cancer Institute, in a related editorial. "These mathematically rigorous and elegant methods provide insights to disease burden that previously could only be loosely approximated."

The findings are published in the journal JAMA Oncology.

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