Beyond country‐specific incidence and mortality: the global burden of melanoma

Abstract

Editorial piece.

In the July 2017 issue of the BJD, Karimkhani and colleagues reported on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2015 melanoma results. The GBD uses a standardized statistical framework to analyse both cancer registry data and cause of death data by country and over time. The authors reported that melanoma accounted for 04065% of the global health burden from all diseases. In high-income countries melanoma accounted for 0426% of total burden from disease, which compares with 3451% burden from lung cancer, 1483% from colorectal cancer, 1442% from breast cancer and 0476% from prostate cancer in those countries. In high-incidence countries, the proportion of total burden is higher–for example 0487% in Australasia, 0458% in Sweden and 0432% in the USA Although the proportion of total disease burden relative to other conditions may seem small, this nonetheless represents substantia losses in absolute terms of healthy years of life lost.

Pooling GBD data across countries may allow identification of groups within a population who have the highest burden of disease.

Comparing GBD data between countries may be used to evaluate potential effects of differences in public policies and highlight where these may be deficient. Comparing GBD data between countries may also allow evaluation of potential benefits and harms of an intervention.