Aims and background: The aim of this paper is to provide estimates of the incidence, mortality and prevalence of seven major cancers in the Marche region for the period 1970-2015.
Methods: The MIAMOD method, a statistical back-calculation approach, was applied to derive incidence and prevalence figures from mortality and relative survival data. Published data from the Italian cancer registries were used as the basis for survival modeling.
Results: Colorectal, breast and prostate cancer were the most frequent cancers in 2012, with 1,563, 1,215 and 1,191 estimated incident cases, and leading to 539, 224 and 228 deaths, respectively. Age-standardized rates were estimated to decrease for stomach and cervical cancer and to increase for skin melanoma and female lung cancer. In men, the lung cancer incidence rates reached their maximum level during the late 1980s and decreased thereafter. The colorectal cancer trend showed an initially increasing pattern, followed by a decrease in the last decade, both for men and women. The estimated incidence rates of prostate cancer presented a very steep rise in the period 1985-2002 and then remained stable at the high levels reached in 2003. The largest increases in prevalence were for breast, colorectal and prostate cancer, for which 17,098, 11,844 and 9,269 cases were estimated, respectively, in 2012. CONCLUSION. This paper provides a description of the burden of the major cancers in the Marche region until 2015. The estimates were fairly consistent with previously published data by the Macerata province cancer registry. The MIAMOD method provides a picture of the impressive increase in the prevalence of breast cancer and prostate cancer over the period studied, thereby allowing to foresee an increasing demand for cancer care services as one of the major challenges for the regional health care system.