Cancer in Latin America and the Caribbean
The rising cancer burden in the region reflects the rapid adoption of more westernized lifestyles at the population level.
The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has doubled in population size over the last half-century to 665 million inhabitants today. About 1.5 million new cancer cases and 741,000 cancer deaths, excluding non-melanoma skin cancers, are estimated to occur in the LAC region in 2022. The five most common cancers are prostate (226,000 new cases per year, 15%), female breast (220,000, 15%), colorectal (145,000, 10%), lung (105,000, 7%) and stomach (74,000, 5%) (Figure 24.1). Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death (91,000, 12%) followed by colorectal (74,000 10%), prostate (61,000, 8%), female breast (60,000, 8%) and stomach (58,000, 8%) cancers.
Estimated number of new cancer cases and deaths by type (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2022
Cancer rates vary markedly in the region, with all-cancer incidence in both sexes ranging from 263 (per 100,000) in Uruguay to 106 (per 100,000) in Belize, and mortality from 128 to 60 in the same countries, respectively (Map 24.1).
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women in almost all LAC countries, though cervical cancer leads in Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador in Central America and in Bolivia and Peru in South America. In males, prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in 25 countries in the region, notably in Central America and the Caribbean, while lung cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer death in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, and Uruguay (Map 24.2).
Lung cancer rates considerably vary across countries partly due to differences in the implementation of tobacco-control measures. Tax hikes in Brazil and Uruguay beginning in 2005 and 2006, respectively, have led to a reduction in smoking prevalence in recent years.
Uruguay became the first country in the region to implement plain tobacco packaging in 2018.
Nevertheless, the increasing cancer burden in the LAC countries reflects a multitude of sociodemographic changes across the region in the last decades.