Premature mortality due to cervical and ovarian cancers in Japan, 2000 to 2020

Abstract

Aim

Using the national Japanese mortality data, we investigated whether there has been an improvement in the lifespan among Japanese women who died from cervical and ovarian cancers from the years 2000 through 2020.

Methods

The number of deaths due to cervical and ovarian cancers in Japan was obtained from the World Health Organization mortality database. We calculated age standardized rates (ASR) using the direct method adjusted to the World Standard Population. Years of life lost (YLL) due to those cancers were calculated using Japanese life tables. Average lifespan shortened (ALSS) measure was calculated as a ratio of YLL to the expected lifespan. We used the bootstrap method to calculate the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for the ALSS measure.

Results

The ASR for death remained mostly stable over the study at about two deaths per 100 000 women for cervical cancer, and three deaths for ovarian cancer. The ALSS values report that women who died from cervical cancer lost on average 28.3% of their lifespan (95% CI: 27.7–28.9) in 2000 and 26.6% (26.1–27.2) in 2020. Women who died from ovarian cancer lost on average 26.9% (26.5–27.4) and 23.5% (23.1–23.9) of their lifespan in 2000 and 2020, respectively.

Conclusion

The ALSS results show that over a 20-year period, women who died of cervical and ovary cancers in Japan had their lifespans prolonged by about two and three percentage points, respectively.