The global burden of cancer is on the rise, with varying national patterns. To gain a better understanding and control of cancer, it is essential to provide national estimates. Therefore, we present a comparative description of cancer incidence and mortality rates in Mexico from 1990 to 2019, by age and sex for 29 different cancer groups. Based on public data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, we evaluated the national burden of cancer by analyzing counts and crude and age-standardized rates per 100,000 people with 95% uncertainty intervals for 2019 and trends using the annual percentage change from 1990 to 2019. In 2019, cancer resulted in 222,060 incident cases and 105,591 deaths. In 2019, the highest incidence of cancer was observed in non-melanoma skin cancer, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. Additionally, 53% of deaths were attributed to six cancer groups (lung, colorectal, stomach, prostate, breast, and pancreatic). From 1990 to 2019, there was an increasing trend in incidence and mortality rates, which varied by 10-436% among cancer groups. Furthermore, there were cancer-specific sex differences in crude and age-standardized rates. The results show an increase in the national cancer burden with sex-specific patterns of change. These findings can guide national efforts to reduce health loss due to cancer.
Keywords: burden of disease; cancer epidemiology; cancer mortality; malignant neoplasm; public health.