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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Research article

Age-standardized expected years of life lost: quantification of cancer severity

Authors: Yueh Wang, Chun-Ju Chiang, Wen-Chung Lee

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

The critical implications of the expected years of life lost (EYLL) index of cancer for health policy assessments have been largely overlooked. We advocate to standardize life lost indices.

Methods

Using the Taiwan Cancer Registry database as an example, we calculated the EYLL and the age-standardized EYLL to facilitate comparisons among cancer types (a total of 903,935 patients from the database). The International Cancer Survival Standard was used for calculating age-standardized EYLL.

Results

Pancreatic cancer is the most severe cancer in Taiwan, with the greatest age-standardized EYLL for the men (15.6 years) and women (18.0 years) as well as for the men and women combined (16.6 years). Negative correlations were observed between unstandardized EYLL of cancer and mean age at diagnosis.

Conclusions

The unstandardized EYLL represents an overall assessment of disease burden, whereas the age-standardized EYLL is a suitable measure of disease severity. We suggest that both measures be incorporated into routine annual reports of cancer statistics alongside the usual incidence and mortality rates and their age-standardized counterparts.
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Metadata
Title
Age-standardized expected years of life lost: quantification of cancer severity
Authors
Yueh Wang
Chun-Ju Chiang
Wen-Chung Lee
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6843-9

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