Trends in mortality from urologic cancers in Europe, 1970-2008

Abstract

Background: In recent decades, there have been substantial changes in mortality from urologic cancers in Europe.

Objective: To provide updated information, we analyzed trends in mortality from cancer of the prostate, testis, bladder, and kidney in Europe from 1970 to 2008.

Design, setting, and participants: We derived data for 33 European countries from the World Health Organization database.

Measurements: We computed world-standardized mortality rates and used joinpoint regression to identify significant changes in trends.

Results and limitations: Mortality from prostate cancer has leveled off since the 1990s in countries of western and northern Europe, particularly over the last few years while it was still rising in Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia. In the European Union (EU), it reached a peak in 1995 at 15.0 per 100 000 men and declined to 12.5 per 100 000 in 2006. Mortality from testicular cancer has steadily declined in most countries in western and northern Europe since the 1970s. The declines were later and appreciably lower in central/eastern Europe. In EU, rates declined from 0.75 in 1980 to 0.32 per 100 000 men in 2006, with stronger declines up to the late 1990s and an apparent leveling off in rates thereafter. Over the last 15 years, mortality from bladder cancer has declined in most European countries in both sexes. The major exceptions were Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania. In the EU, bladder cancer mortality was stable until 1992 and declined thereafter from 7.3 to 5.5 per 100 000 men and from 1.5 to 1.2 per 100 000 women in 2006. Mortality from kidney cancer increased throughout Europe until the early 1990s and leveled off thereafter in many countries, except in a few central and eastern ones. Between 1994 and 2006, rates declined from 4.9 to 4.3 per 100 000 in EU men and from 2.1 to 1.8 per 100 000 in EU women.

Conclusions: Over the last two decades, trends in urologic cancer mortality were favorable in Europe, with the exception of a few central and eastern countries.