The Lancet – Global burden of cancer in 2008: a systematic analysis of disability-adjusted life-years in 12 world regions

The burden of cancer is high in every world region, concludes a study led by scientists of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and published in The Lancet today [Tuesday, October 16].
In the study, Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram and colleagues derived the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 27 cancers in 184 countries in 12 world regions. DALYs is an indicator that integrates the commonly used measures of cancer burden (incidence, mortality, and survival) with measures of disability due to cancer. DALYs is calculated by adding the time lost due to premature mortality (years of life lost, or YLL) and the duration lived with disability in survivors (years lived with a disability, or YLD).

Soerjomataram I, Lortet-Tieulent J, Parkin DM, Ferlay J, Mathers C, Forman D, Bray F.
Global burden of cancer in 2008: a systematic analysis of disability-adjusted life-years in 12 world regions.
Lancet 2012, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61688-2

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