Purpose: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most fatal cancer in females. The objective of this paper was to determine the incidence and mortality trends of OC in central Serbia from 1999 to 2003.
Methods: Data about all new cases and deaths of OC were obtained from the Serbian Cancer Registry. Data were analyzed for the central of Serbia which encompasses the territory of Serbia without its northern and southern regions. Data of the female population were obtained from the population censuses in the years 1991, 2002 and 2011. World population was used as a standard. Trend and annual percentage change (APC) of the incidence and mortality rate with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by performing jointpoint regression.
Results: Jointpoint analysis showed increased incidence trend of annual standardized rate (ASR) for OC from 1999 to 2013 with APC 0.3% (95%CI: 0.3, 0.8). Significantly increased trend in OC mortality was recorded continuously from 1999 to 2007 with APC 2.25% (95% CI: 0.9, 3.6). Decreased mortality trend was observed in the period 2010- 2013 with APC -7.34% (95%CI:-15.8, 2.0). The majority of the new cases of OC were aged 40-74 (78.7%). OC was the sixth most common cancer of all cancers in females and the sixth most common cause of cancer death in females.
Conclusions: During 1999-2013 there was an increasing trend of incidence of OC. In 1999-2007 there was a significant increasing mortality trend and non-significant decrease of the trend from 2010 to 2013 in central Serbia. The incidence and mortality rates of OC in central Serbia were higher than the corresponding rates in neighboring countries.