Global trends of prostate cancer by age, and their associations with gross domestic product (GDP), human development index (HDI), smoking, and alcohol drinking

An international team of researchers examined the global disease burden and trends of prostate cancer incidence and mortality by age, and their associations with gross domestic product (GDP), human development index (HDI), smoking, and alcohol drinking.

The Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) database was used for the incidence and mortality of prostate cancer in 2020; the World Bank for GDP per capita; the United Nations for HDI; the WHO Global Health Observatory for prevalence of smoking and alcohol drinking; the Cancer Incidence in 5 Continents (CI5); and the WHO mortality database, for trend analysis. The researchers presented the prostate cancer incidence and mortality using age-standardised rates and examined their associations with GDP, HDI, smoking, and alcohol drinking. The study estimated the 10-year trend of prostate cancer incidence and mortality.
A wide variation in the burden of prostate cancer with the highest mortality found in low-income countries while the highest incidence was observed in high-income countries. Moderate to high positive correlations were observed for GDP, HDI, and alcohol drinking with prostate cancer incidence, whilst a low negative correlation was observed for smoking. Globally, there was an increasing incidence but decreasing mortality of prostate cancer, and such trends were particularly prominent in Europe. Notably, the incidence increase was also found in the younger population aged <50 years.
There was a global variation in the burden of prostate cancer associated with GDP, HDI, smoking, and alcohol drinking the study concludes
Source: Huang J, Chan EO, Liu X, Lok V, Ngai CH, Zhang L, Xu W, Zheng ZJ, Chiu PK, Vasdev N, Enikeev D, Shariat SF, Ng CF, Teoh JY, Wong MCS. Global trends of prostate cancer by age, and their associations with gross domestic product (GDP), human development index (HDI), smoking, and alcohol drinking. Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2023 Aug;21(4):e261-e270.e50. .