The global, regional, and national disease burden of breast cancer attributable to tobacco from 1990 to 2019: a global burden of disease study

Tobacco has been identified as a significant contributory element to the development of breast cancer. Our objective was to evaluate the spatiotemporal trends of tobacco-related breast cancer at the global, regional, and national scales during 1990–2019.

We extracted data on mortality, disability adjusted of life years (DALYs), age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR), and age-standardized DALYs rate (ASDR) from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2019. Estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) was computed to assess the temporal change in ASDR and ASMR.

In 2019, the deaths and DALYs attributed to tobacco-related breast cancer were estimated to be 35,439 (95% UI: 22,179–48,119) and 1,060,590 (95% UI: 622,550–1,462,580), respectively. These figures accounted for 5.1% and 5.2% of the total burden of breast cancer. ASMR and ASDR increased in low SDI regions, remained stable in low-middle and middle SDI regions and declined in high and high-middle SDI regions. The burden of breast cancer attributable to tobacco varied notably among regions and nations. Oceania, Southern Latin America, and Central Europe were the GBD regions with the highest number of ASMR and DALYs. There was a positive relationship between age-standardized rate and SDI value in 2019 across 204 nations or territories. A negative association was observed between the EAPC in ASMR or ASDR and the human development index (HDI) in 2019 (R = -0.55, p < 0.01 for ASMR; R = -0.56, p < 0.01 for ASDR).

Tobacco is one important and modifiable risk factor for breast cancer. The heterogeneity in both the spatial and temporal distribution can be attributed to factors such as aging, population growth, and SDI. These findings substantiate the necessity of expediting the enforcement of tobacco-free legislation in order to safeguard populations from the detrimental effects of tobacco.