Cancer burden attributable to risk factors, 1990-2019: A comparative risk assessment

Junjie Hu; Hongliang Dong; Yiming Dong; Runxuan Zhou; Wilhem Teixeira; Xingxing He; Da-Wei Ye; Gang Ti

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109430

Cancer burden attributable to risk factors, 1990-2019: A comparative risk assessment

iScience. 2024 Mar 8;27(4):109430. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109430. eCollection 2024 Apr 19.

Authors

Junjie Hu¹, Hongliang Dong^{2

3}, Yiming Dong⁴, Runxuan Zhou¹, Wilhem Teixeira⁵, Xingxing He^{6

7}, Da-Wei Ye¹, Gang Ti⁸

Affiliations

¹ Cancer Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.
² Department of GI Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, P.R. China.
³ GI Cancer Research Institute, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, P.R. China.
⁴ Department of Orthopedics, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.
⁵ Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.
⁶ Department of Gastroenterology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430030, China.
⁷ Hubei Clinical Center and Key Laboratory of Intestinal and Colorectal Diseases, Wuhan 430030, China.
⁸ Department of Medical Record, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030032 Shanxi, China.

Abstract

An up-to-date comprehensive assessment of the cancer burden attributable to risk factors is essential for cancer prevention. We analyzed the population attributable fraction (PAF) of cancer disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to 11 level 2 risk factors using data from the Global Burden and Disease Study (GBD) 2019. We highlighted that almost half of the cancer DALYs can be preventable by modifying relevant risk factors. The attributable cancer DALYs increased by 60.42%-105.0 million from 1990 to 2019. Tobacco, dietary risks, alcohol use, high body-mass index, and air pollution were the top five risk factors. The PAFs attributable to high fasting plasma glucose, high body-mass index, and low physical activity have increased worldwide from 1990 to 2019. Unsafe sex was the leading risk factor for women before age of 54. Tailored prevention programs targeted at specific populations should be scaled up to reduce the cancer burden in the future.

Keywords: Cancer; Health sciences; Public health.