Age-related Disparities in Pan-Cancer Mortality and Causes of Death: Analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Data

Abstract

Comprehensive analysis of mortality and causes of death (COD) in cancers was of importance to conduct intervention strategies. The current study aimed to investigate the mortality rate and COD among cancers, and to explore the disparities between age. Initially, cancer patients diagnosed between 2010 and 2019 from the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) database were extracted. Then, frequencies and percentage of deaths, and mortality rate in different age groups were calculated. Meanwhile, age distribution of different COD across tumor types was illustrated while the standardized mortality ratios (SMR) stratified by age were calculated and visualized. A total of 2,670,403 death records were included and digestive system cancer (688,953 death cases) was the most common primary cancer type. The mortality rate increased by 5.6% annually in total death, 4.0% in cancer-specific death and 10.9% in non-cancer cause. As for cancer-specific death, the age distribution varied among different primary tumor types due to prone age and prognosis of cancer. The top five non-cancer causes in patients older than 50 were cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, other causes, COPD and associated conditions, diabetes as well as Alzheimer. The SMRs of these causes were higher among younger patients and gradually dropped in older age groups. Mortality and COD of cancer patients were heterogeneous in age group due to primary tumor types, prone age and prognosis of cancer. Our study conducted that non-cancer COD was a critical part in clinical practice as well as cancer-specific death. Individualized treatment and clinical intervention should be made after fully considering of the risk factor for death in different diagnosis ages and tumor types.