Abstract

OCHOA-JARAMILLO, Francisco Luis  and  MONTOYA-VELEZ, Liliana Patricia. Cancer mortality in Colombia in 2005. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2009, vol.57, n.4, pp.304-315. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. In 2005, cancer killed 7.6 million people worldwide, of which 75 percent of them occurred in low and middle incomes. Objective. To describe cancer mortality in Colombia in 2005. Materials and methods. Retrospective descriptive study of cancer deaths in Colombia in 2005 using the database of death certificates and DANE last official census. National and sex-specific rates were adjusted modeled using EpiDat 3.1®. Results. Of the 189,022 deaths in Colombia, 17.8% were for cancer, for a crudes rate of 81.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. The average age of death was 64.3 ± 18 years. Two out of three deaths occurred in patients older than 60 years. Among males the leading causes were tumors of the stomach, prostate and lung and bronchus, whereas in women were breast, stomach and cervix. Bogotá, Antioquia and Valle contributed with 46 percent of all deaths, while the coffee zone and departments of Valle and Antioquia, have the highest rates of death from cancer. Conclusion: Cancer has a high morbidity and mortality in the country, so it is urgent to give priority to policies aimed at this disease in an aging population. It requires more commitment of health personnel to seek screening tests regulated in Colombia. Further studies are required on the behavior of the tumors in the country, especially in areas of highest risk.

Keywords : Colombia; neoplasms; mortality; straining; risk assessment; diagnosis.

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