Cancer incidence and mortality in the Bucaramanga metropolitan area, 2003-2007

INTRODUCTION: Cancer is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) make possible to estimate the burden of this condition. AIM: To estimate cancer incidence and mortality rates in the Bucaramanga Metropolitan Area (BMA) during 2003-2007. METHODS: Incident cases of invasive cancer diagnosed during 2003-2007 were identified from the Bucaramanga Metropolitan Area PBCR (BMA-PBCR). Population counts and mortality were obtained from the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics (NADS). We estimated total and cancer-specific crude incidence and mortality rates by age group and sex, as well as age-standardized (Segi's world population) incidence (ASIR(W)) and mortality (ASMR(W)) rates. Statistical analyses were conducted using CanReg4 and Stata/IC 10.1. RESULTS: We identified 8,225 new cases of cancer excluding non-melanoma skin cancer (54.3% among women). Of all cases, 6,943 (84.4%) were verified by microscopy and 669 (8.1%) were detected only by death certificate. ASIR(W) for all invasive cancers was 162.8 per 100,000 women and 177.6 per 100,000 men. Breast, cervix, colorectal, stomach and thyroid were the most common types of cancer in women. In men, the corresponding malignancies were prostate, stomach, colorectal, lung and lymphoma. ASMR(W) was 84.5 per 100,000 person-years in women and 106.2 per 100,000 person-years in men. Breast and stomach cancer ranked first as causes of death in those groups, respectively. CONCLUSION: Overall, mortality rates in our region are higher than national estimates possibly due to limited effectiveness of secondary prevention strategies. Our work emphasizes the importance of maintaining high-quality, nationwide PBCRs.