Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration IMPORTANCE Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now widely recognized as a threat to global development. The latest United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs reaffirmed this observation and also highlighted the slow progress in meeting the 2011 Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the third Sustainable Development Goal. Lack of situational analyses, priority setting, and budgeting have been identified as major obstacles in achieving these goals. All of these have in common that they require information on the local cancer epidemiology. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study is uniquely poised to provide these crucial data. OBJECTIVE To describe cancer burden for 29 cancer groups in 195 countries from 1990 through 2017 to provide data needed for cancer control planning. EVIDENCE REVIEW We used the GBD study estimation methods to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). Results are presented at the national level as well as by Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. We also analyzed the influence of the epidemiological vs the demographic transition on cancer incidence. FINDINGS In 2017, there were 24.5 million incident cancer cases worldwide (16.8 million without nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC]) and 9.6 million cancer deaths. The majority of cancer DALYs came from years of life lost (97%), and only 3% came from years lived with disability. The odds of developing cancer were the lowest in the low SDI quintile (1 in 7) and the highest in the high SDI quintile (1 in 2) for both sexes. In 2017, the most common incident cancers in men were NMSC (4.3 million incident cases); tracheal, bronchus, and lung (TBL) cancer (1.5 million incident cases); and prostate cancer (1.3 million incident cases). The most common causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for men were TBL cancer (1.3 million deaths and 28.4 million DALYs), liver cancer (572 000 deaths and 15.2 million DALYs), and stomach cancer (542 000 deaths and 12.2 million DALYs). For women in 2017, the most common incident cancers were NMSC (3.3 million incident cases), breast cancer (1.9 million incident cases), and colorectal cancer (819 000 incident cases). The leading causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for women were breast cancer (601 000 deaths and 17.4 million DALYs), TBL cancer (596 000 deaths and 12.6 million DALYs), and colorectal cancer (414 000 deaths and 8.3 million DALYs). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The national epidemiological profiles of cancer burden in the GBD study show large heterogeneities, which are a reflection of different exposures to risk factors, economic settings, lifestyles, and access to care and screening. The GBD study can be used by policy makers and other stakeholders to develop and improve national and local cancer control in order to achieve the global targets and improve equ...

Background The Nordic countries have commonalities in gender equality, economy, welfare, and health care, but differ in culture and lifestyle, which might create country-wise health differences. This study compared life expectancy, disease burden, and risk factors in the Nordic region.Methods Life expectancy in years and age-standardised rates of overall, cause-specific, and risk factor-specific estimates of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were analysed in the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017. Data were extracted for Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden (ie, the Nordic countries), and Greenland, an autonomous area of Denmark. Estimates were compared with global, high-income region, and Nordic regional estimates, including Greenland. Findings All Nordic countries exceeded the global life expectancy; in 2017, the highest life expectancy was in Iceland among females (85•9 years [95% uncertainty interval [UI] 85•5-86•4] vs 75•6 years [75•3-75•9] globally) and Sweden among males (80•8 years [80•2-81•4] vs 70•5 years [70•1-70•8] globally). Females (82•7 years [81•9-83•4]) and males (78•8 years [78•1-79•5]) in Denmark and males in Finland (78•6 years [77•8-79•2]) had lower life expectancy than in the other Nordic countries. The lowest life expectancy in the Nordic region was in Greenland (females 77•2 years [76•2-78•0], males 70•8 years [70•3-71•4]). Overall disease burden was lower in the Nordic countries than globally, with the lowest age-standardised DALY rates among Swedish males (18 555•7 DALYs [95% UI 15 968•6-21 426•8] per 100 000 population vs 35 834•3 DALYs [33 218•2-38 740•7] globally) and Icelandic females (16 074•1 DALYs [13 216•4-19 240•8] vs 29 934•6 DALYs [26 981•9-33 211•2] globally). Greenland had substantially higher DALY rates (26 666•6 DALYs [23 478•4-30 218•8] among females, 33 101•3 DALYs [30 182•3-36 218•6] among males) than the Nordic countries. Country variation was primarily due to differences in causes that largely contributed to DALYs through mortality, such as ischaemic heart disease. These causes dominated male disease burden, whereas non-fatal causes such as low back pain were important for female disease burden. Smoking and metabolic risk factors were high-ranking risk factors across all countries. DALYs attributable to alcohol use and smoking were particularly high among the Danes, as was alcohol use among Finnish males.Interpretation Risk factor differences might drive differences in life expectancy and disease burden that merit attention also in high-income settings such as the Nordic countries. Special attention should be given to the high disease burden in Greenland.

Highlights WHO and ILO are developing joint estimates of work-related burden of disease and injury. We systematically reviewed effect of occupational exposure to noise on CVD. We found 17 eligible studies with 534,688 participants in 11 countries/3 WHO regions. We are very uncertain about the effect of occupational exposure to noise on CVD.

The objective of the study was to assess the relationship between exposure to selected solvents and the risk of bladder cancer. This study is based on the Nordic Occupational Cancer (NOCCA) database and comprises 113,343 cases of bladder cancer diagnosed in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden between 1961 and 2005 and 566,715 population controls matched according to country, sex and birth year. Census-based occupational titles of the cases and controls were linked with the job exposure matrix created by the NOCCA project to estimate quantitative cumulative occupational exposures. A conditional logistic regression model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Increased risks were observed for trichloroethylene (HR 1.23, 95% CI 1.12-1.40), toluene (HR 1.20, 95% CI 1.00-1.38), benzene (HR 1.16, 95% CI 1.04-1.31), aromatic hydrocarbon solvents (HR 1.10, 95% CI 0.94-1.30) and aliphatic and alicyclic hydrocarbon solvents (HR 1.08, 95% CI 1.00-1.23) at high exposure level versus no exposure. The highest excess for perchloroethylene was observed at medium exposure level (HR 1.12, 95% CI 1.02-1.23). The study provides evidence of an association of occupational exposure to trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, aromatic hydrocarbon solvents, benzene and toluene and the risk of bladder cancer.

Background: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a cancer arising from the intra-and extrahepatic bile ducts. The early stages are often asymptomatic, CCA is frequently diagnosed in an advanced stage and the prognosis of CCA is often dismal.Objective: Our objective was to estimate the incidence of CCA in Finland and to identify risk factors for CCA, with a special interest in primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). Methods:We identified all CCA cases during 1974-2018 from the Finnish Cancer Registry and calculated age-standardised incidence rates. Five controls for each case were extracted from the Population Registry, matched by age, gender and municipality of residence at the time of diagnosis. Odds ratios (ORs) for risk factors were estimated with conditional logistic regression and survival estimates with the Kaplan-Meier method.Results: Incidence of CCA remained stable in both genders; the age-standardised rate (World Standard) in 2013-2017 in males and females was 1.7 per 100,000 person years and 1.3 per 100,000 person years, respectively. Primary sclerosing cholangitis carried a 30-fold risk of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) and 25fold risk of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (eCCA). Diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and liver cirrhosis were associated with iCCA, whereas cholelithiasis and viral hepatitis C were associated with eCCA. The cumulative 5-year survival was 4.6%. Conclusions:The incidence of CCA has been stable. Known risk factors for CCA were confirmed, with PSC having the highest OR. Survival remains poor.