Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 May 4;16(4):820-824.
doi: 10.5114/aoms.2020.94845. eCollection 2020.

The global burden of pancreatic cancer

Giuseppe Lippi  1 , Camilla Mattiuzzi  2
Affiliations

The global burden of pancreatic cancer

Giuseppe Lippi et al. Arch Med Sci. .

Abstract

Introduction: We provide here an overview on current worldwide epidemiology of pancreatic malignancies, obtained from Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) and World Health Organization (WHO) repositories.

Material and methods: Electronic searches for collecting information on pancreatic cancer epidemiology were performed in official repositories of GHDx and WHO, and retrieved data were then analyzed.

Results: Overall, 447 665 new cases of pancreatic cancer were recorded around the world in 2017 (58.6 per million), with global prevalence of 49.8 per million and 441 083 deaths (57.7 per million). Incidence, prevalence and mortality increased by 55%, 63% and 53% during the last 25 years. Pancreatic cancer accounts for 1.8% of all cancers, causing 3.9% of all cancer disability- adjusted life years (DALYs) and 4.6% of all cancer deaths. No sex differences can be observed for incidence, prevalence and mortality, whilst DALYs are marginally higher in men. Incidence, prevalence and mortality follow a similar age-related trend, with gradual escalation after 30 years of age, reaching the highest burden after 80 years of age. The DALYs peak between 55 and 74 years, and then decline. The epidemiologic burden is positively associated with socio-demographic status. The largest burden of pancreatic cancers is observed in the East and Asia Pacific region, whilst the lowest is found in the Middle East and North Africa. Pancreatic cancer deaths are expected to increase by ~1.97-fold by the year 2060.

Conclusions: Although pancreatic cancer remains relatively infrequent, its clinical, societal and economic burden is noteworthy. Future projections suggest that its burden may double during the next 40 years.

Keywords: epidemiology; mortality; pancreatic cancer; prevalence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Worldwide incidence, prevalence, causespecific disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and mortality of pancreatic cancer during the last 25 years
Figure 2
Figure 2
Worldwide incidence, prevalence, causespecific disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and mortality of pancreatic cancer in different age ranges
Figure 3
Figure 3
Incidence, prevalence, cause-specific disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and mortality of pancreatic cancer in different geographic areas
Figure 4
Figure 4
Future trends of mortality for all causes, all types of cancers and pancreatic cancers
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Haeberle L, Esposito I. Pathology of pancreatic cancer. Transl Gastroenterol Hepatol 2019; 4: 50. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Salaria SN, Shi C. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Surg Pathol Clin 2016; 9: 595-617. - PubMed
    1. American Cancer Society. Survival Rates for Pancreatic Cancer. Available at: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/pancreatic-cancer/detection-diagnosis-stag... (Accessed: 18.07.2019).
    1. McGuigan A, Kelly P, Turkington RC, Jones C, Coleman HG, McCain RS. Pancreatic cancer: a review of clinical diagnosis, epidemiology, treatment and outcomes. World J Gastroenterol 2018; 24: 4846-61. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Capasso M, Franceschi M, Rodriguez-Castro KI, et al. . Epidemiology and risk factors of pancreatic cancer. Acta Biomed 2018; 89: 141-6. - PMC - PubMed