The Global Burden of Esophageal Cancer in Older Adults
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: GOALS: To assess esophageal cancer (EC) burdens among older adults aged 60+ from 1990 to 2021. BACKGROUND: With the aging global population, EC in elderly presents a significant health challenge. STUDY: 2021 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) data were used to calculate age-standardized rates (ASRs) for incidence, prevalence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Joinpoint regression was used to calculate the average annual percentage change (AAPC) to assess temporal trends. Pearson's correlation analysis investigated the relationship between socio-demographic index (SDI) and the male-to-female ratios of ASRs. RESULTS: In 2021, there were 421,336 incident cases, 655,313 prevalent cases, 410,902 deaths, and 8,059,156 DALYs due to EC in older adults globally, doubling since 1990. The age-standardized incidence rate, age-standardized mortality rate, and age-standardized DALYs rate exhibited decline from 1990 to 2021, with respective AAPCs of -0.62 (95% CI: -0.76 to -0.48), -0.9 (95% CI: -1.05 to -0.75), and -1.11 (95% CI: -1.25 to -0.97), while age-standardized prevalence rate (AAPC: -0.04, 95% CI: -0.16 to 0.09) remained stable. Western Sub-Saharan Africa experienced the steepest rise in ASRs from 1990 to 2021, while East Asia recorded the highest ASRs in 2021. The male-to-female ratios for all ARSs increased globally from 1990 to 2021, with a significantly positive correlation between the gender ratios and SDI. CONCLUSION: EC poses a growing challenge for elderly populations, with clear geographic and gender disparities. Targeted interventions are necessary to mitigate the increasing burden in older adults.
Authors: Minxia Yang, Liejiong Wang, Xiuxia Chen, Feng Xuan
Institutions: Shaoxing People's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University
Language: English
Subfield: Surgery
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4413914688