Burden of major cancer types in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Abstract

Globally, cancer is the second leading cause of death, with a growing burden also observed in Kazakhstan. This study evaluates the burden of common cancers in Almaty, Kazakhstan's major city, from 2017 to 2021, utilizing data from the Information System of the Ministry of Health. In Kazakhstan, most common cancers among men include lung, stomach, and prostate cancer, while breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers are predominant among women. Employing measures like disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), we found that selected cancer types accounted for a total DALY burden of 25,016.60 in 2021, with mortality contributing more than disability (95.2% vs. 4.7%) with the ratio of non-fatal to fatal outcomes being 1.4 times higher in women than in men. The share of non-fatal burden (YLD) proportion within DALYs increased for almost all selected cancer types, except stomach and cervical cancer over the observed period in Almaty. Despite the overall increase in cancer burden observed during the time period, a downward trend in specific cancers suggests the efficacy of implemented cancer control strategies. Comparison with global trends highlights the significance of targeted interventions. This analysis underscores the need for continuous comprehensive cancer control strategies in Almaty and Kazakhstan, including vaccination against human papillomavirus, stomach cancer screening programs, and increased cancer awareness initiatives.

Keywords: Almaty; Burden of disease; Disability-adjusted life years; Kazakhstan; Neoplasms.

Fig. 1

Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) according to sex for each selected cancer type with proportions of years lived with disability (YLD) and years of life lost owing to premature death (YLL) in Almaty, 2021. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), delineated in this figure for Almaty in 2021, encompass both the years lived with disability (YLD, represented in orange) and the years of life lost to premature mortality (YLL, depicted in purple), with these metrics disaggregated by sex for selected cancer types.

Fig. 2

Age-standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rates for certain types of cancer in men (left) and women (right) from 2017 to 2021 in Almaty. This figure shows trends in age-standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rates per 100.000 population among men and women in Almaty over the 5-year period, 2017 to 2021, for lung, stomach, colorectal, prostate, breast, and cervical cancers.

Fig. 3

Ranking of selected cancers based on age-standardized disability-adjusted life year (DALY) rates in both sexes between 2017 and 2021. This figure shows comparative rankings of selected cancers based on age-standardized disability-adjusted life year (DALY) rates in Almaty for both sexes, compared with 2017 and 2021. Changes in ratings are indicated by color coding: red indicates an escalation in ranking, green signifies a decline, and yellow means no change. The accompanying percentages and brackets represent the relative change in age-standardized DALYs between two years for each cancer type.

Fig. 4

Contribution to disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of years lived with disability (YLD) and years of life lost owing to premature death (YLL) by cancer type and sex in 2017 and 2021, Almaty. This figure shows the proportional contribution of years lived with disability (YLD, shown in orange) and years of life lost due to premature death (YLL, shown in purple) to total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for each specific case by cancer type and sex in Almaty for lung, breast, colorectal, stomach, cervical and prostate cancer, reflecting temporal changes in disease burden over the period 2017–2021.

Fig. 5

Age distribution of disability-adjusted life year (DALY) rate per 100,000 in Almaty during 2021 for men (left) and women (right). This figure shows the age distribution of DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) per 100,000 men and women in Almaty in 2021 for age groups from 0–4 years to 85+ years.