title: [Years of life lost as a measure of cancer burden in Colombia, 1997-2012].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is hardly any information regarding years of life lost due to cancer in Colombia.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To quantify total and average years of life lost due to cancer in Colombia, and to investigate changes in this burden between 1997 and 2012.
  
  
  METHODS
  We obtained sex-specific data on age distribution, remaining life expectancy, deaths due to specific cancers and total number of deaths from the Colombian Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísticas. We calculated years of life lost based on each individual´s age at death and the remaining life expectancy at that age; as for average years of life, we divided these by the number of deaths due to specific cancers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total number of cancer deaths increased by 33% between 1997 and 2012, comprising 15% of male and 20% of female deaths in the period 2010-2012. Total years of life lost due to cancer increased by 25.1% for males and 31.1% for females over the study period. The highest increases (>40%) were observed for colorectal, pancreas and kidney cancers in both sexes, for melanomas and bladder cancer in men, and for breast and ovarian cancer in women. Trends in average years of life lost were stable. Almost half (48-50%) of the years of life lost due to childhood cancers were due to leukemia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cancer is an increasing health burden in Colombia. The high average years of life lost illustrate the poor prognosis of the disease compared to other countries. Primary prevention, early detection, and adequate and timely treatments are needed to change this situation.
authors.affiliation: Subdirección de Investigaciones, Vigilancia Epidemiológica, Promoción y Prevención, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia Departamento de Epidemiología Clínica y Bioestadística, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia. estherdevries77@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Vries
authors.forename: María Ximena
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Meneses
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piñeros
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003105:Colombia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D009928:Organ Specificity; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Colombia; Neoplasms; cost of illness; potential years of life lost/trends