Kidney cancer - UK mortality statistics

In the UK, kidney cancer is the tenth most common cause of cancer death in men and the twelfth in women. 3,848 people died from kidney cancer in 2008, accounting for over 2% of all cancer deaths in the UK.

The number of deaths and the mortality rates for kidney cancer in the UK and its constituent countries in 2008 are shown in Table 2.1. 1-3

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Kidney cancer death rates rise with increasing age and most deaths (around 84% of male deaths and around 85% of female deaths) occur after the age of 60 ( Figure 2.1). 1-3

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Kidney cancer mortality rates for both men and women have increased since the early 1970s (Figure 2.2).

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Male kidney cancer rates have shown a steady rise from around 4.3 per 100,000 in 1971 to around 6.0 per 100,000 in 2008; Female rates have increased over the same period from 2.1 to 3.1 per 100,000. The male:female ratio of age standardised rates has remained fairly constant at about 2.1:1. During the last five years, rates appear to be stabilising.

When rates are examined by age, (Figure 2.3 and 2.4) it is clear that the largest increases in mortality since 1971 were in the older age groups, reflecting the incidence trends. Men aged 65 and over have experienced increases of between 55 and 177%. Whilst kidney cancer mortality rates in women are lower, for women aged 65 and over mortality rates have increased from between 57 and 161%.

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When mortality from kidney cancer is analysed by birth cohort, there are increases in death rates for those born up to the mid 1920s, a levelling off for those born from the 1930s to the early 1950s, and for subsequent birth cohorts there is a fall in mortality. This may mean in future that overall mortality rates will decline in the UK. 4

Such a decline has already occurred in some northern European countries, for example, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway during the last two decades of the twentieth century. 5 The pattern of kidney cancer mortality by birth-cohort in Europe resembles that for lung cancer and for both cancers smoking is the primary risk factor. 5

Figure 2.5 shows estimates of kidney cancer mortality across the countries of the EU.

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