Indicator Profile of Cancer Deaths
Why Is This Important?
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and in Utah. The financial costs of cancer are substantial, with an overall annual cost estimated at $206.3 billion in 2006.(1) Treatment for lung, prostate, and breast cancers accounts for more than half of the direct medical costs.(2)Cancer generally develops over several years and has many causes. Several factors both inside and outside the body contribute to the development of cancer. Some of these factors include genetics, tobacco, diet, weight, physical inactivity, and excessive sunlight exposure. Other factors include exposure to ionizing radiation and environmental chemicals that may be present in the workplace, food, air, or water such as asbestos, benzene, and arsenic.
Data Notes
ICD-9 codes 140-208, ICD-10 codes C00-C97. Age-adjusted to U.S. 2000 population. The International Classification of Diseases has been revised approximately every ten years since 1900. The latest revision, ICD-10, was implemented in 1999 replacing ICD-9, the standard since 1979. ICD-10 differs from ICD-9 in several respects. ICD-10 is far more detailed with about 8,000 categories compared with 5,000 in ICD-9. Some of the coding rules and rules for selecting the underlying cause of death have also been changed. These changes create discontinuities in cause-of-death statistics and are critical to the interpretation of mortality trends. Comparability ratios have been created for many cause-of-death classifications in order to reduce the impact of these changes but caution should be used when interpreting trends across the Ninth and Tenth ICD revisions.Data Sources
Utah Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Records and Statistics, Utah Department of Health; Population Estimates: Utah Governor's Office of Planning and Budget; National Vital Statistics System, National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;Other Views
Definition
The rate of death from all cancers per 100,000 persons.How We Calculated the Rates
| Numerator: | Number of deaths due to cancer (ICD-9 codes 140-208 and ICD-10 codes C00-C97). |
| Denominator: | Population of Utah or U.S. for a given time period. |
Page Content Updated On 10/22/07,
Published on 07/15/08
