Lung Cancer burden of disease in The Northern Tunisia

Abstract Introduction Lung Cancer is one of the leading cancers and major causes of death among men worldwide. Current estimates on the burden of cancer are needed to plan and evaluate cancer control policies. This study aimed to estimate the lung cancer burden in Northern Tunisia in terms of disability adjusted life years (DALY) from 2007 to 2009. Methods DALYs for cancer are the sum of years of potential life lost due to premature mortality (YLL) and the years of productive life lost due to disability (YLD).We calculated YLL by multiplying the number of deaths by the standard life expectancy at that age using the mortality data of the Global Cancer statistics 2012 (Globocan 2012) and the population data provided by the National institute of Statistics. We used the model life-table West with a life expectancy at birth of 82.5years for women and 80 years for men.YLD were computed by multiplying the number of new cases by the average duration of the disease calculated with the DiSMoDII software. The disability weight employed was 0.917 for lung cancer; a discounting rate of 0.03 was applied. The Incidence data were obtained from the Cancer Registry of the North region of Tunisia 2007-2009. Results The incidence rate of lung cancer in the northern region of Tunisia between 2007 and 2009 was 28.8/100000 persons years for males and 3.1/100000 persons years for females. Lung cancer death rate was 27.8/100000 persons for males and 1.65/100000 persons for females. Lung cancer DALY values were 10404 for males (410/100000) and1251 for females (50/100000). The percentage of YLL in DALYS was 93.3% for males and 51.7 % for females. The highest proportion of YLL was observed for the age group 60-69years for both sexes. Conclusions The burden of lung cancer especially among males is very important. This highlights the importance of promoting the preventive measures such as the Tobacco control including tobacco cessation. Key messages Burden of lung cancer among male is very high in Tunisia. Importance of promoting preventive measures such as tobacco control.