Global cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates have remained stable or are decreasing, according to a study published in Cancer.
Shujuan Lin, from Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, and colleagues extracted data on global cervical cancer incidence and mortality in 2018 and analyzed their correlations with the Human Development Index. Temporal trends were analyzed among 31 countries with highly qualified data from the Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Plus and World Health Organization mortality databases. An open-source age-period-cohort model was used to predict future trends for the next 15 years.
In a cross-sectional analysis, the researchers found that cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates were negatively correlated with the Human Development Index (r = −0.56 and r = −0.69, respectively). However, during the most recent 10 data-years, both rates remained stable in 12 countries and decreased in 14 and 18 countries for incidence and mortality, respectively. For the next 15 years, similar trends were predicted.
“Globally, cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates were negatively correlated with socioeconomic development,” the authors write. “Both temporal and predicted trends remained stable or even decreased in most of the analyzed countries, especially in those with effective cervical cancer screening programs and human papillomavirus vaccination.”
