Background: Cancer is recently one of the major concerns of the public health both in the world and Iran. To inform priorities for cancer control, this study estimated years of potential life lost (YPLL) and productivity losses due to cancer-related premature mortality in Iran in 2012.
Materials and methods: The number of cancer deaths by sex for all cancers and the ten leading causes of cancer deaths in Iran in 2012 were obtained from the GLOBOCAN database. The life expectancy method and the human capital approach were used to estimate the YPLL and the value of productivity lost due to cancer-related premature mortality.
Results: There were 53,350 cancer-related deaths in Iran. We estimated that these cancer deaths resulted in 1,112,680 YPLL in total, 563,332 (50.6%) in males and 549,348 (49.4%) in females. The top 10 ranked cancers accounted for 75% of total death and 70% of total YPLL in the males and 69% for both death and YPLL in the females. The largest contributors for YPLL in the two genders were stomach and breast cancers, respectively. The total cost of lost productivity due to cancer-related premature mortality discounted at 3% rate in Iran, was US$ 1.93 billion. The most costly cancer for the males was stomach, while for the females it was breast cancer. The percentage of the total costs that were attributable to the top 10 cancers was 67% in the males and 71% in the females.
Conclusions: The YPLL and productivity losses due to cancer-related premature mortality are substantial in Iran. Setting resource allocation priorities to cancers that occur in younger working-age individuals (such as brain and central nervous system) and/or cancers with high incidence and mortality rates (such as stomach and breast) could potentially decrease the productivity losses and the YPLL to a great extent in Iran.