Mortality trends of breast and cervical cancer in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul: an analysis by age and schooling, 1999-2019

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the temporal trend of mortality due to malignant neoplasms of the breast and cervix from 1999 to 2019 in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. METHODS: this was a time-series study based on data from the Mortality Information System; standardized rates were calculated according to age and schooling, and the temporal trend was assessed using Prais-Winsten regression. RESULTS: the overall mortality coefficients for cervical cancer (β = -0.03; 95%CI -0.08;0.02) and for breast cancer (β = -0.006; 95%CI -0.02;0.01) were stable over the time series; in both types of neoplasms, a rising trend was identified in women with up to 7 years of schooling; on the other hand, a stationary trend was found in the majority of the age strata analyzed. CONCLUSION: older women and those with low levels of schooling had the worst prognosis.