Erratum to: Global and regional estimates of cancer mortality and incidence by site: II. results for the global burden of disease 2000

After the publication of this work [1], we noticed the typographical errors in Tables 8, 9, 16, and 17: there were inconsistencies between the ranking of cancer mortality and incidence and their corresponding figures. Here we briefly present the results along with the revisions of the relevant tables since the ranking was corrected while the figures remained the same as the original.

Tables 1 and 2 represent the ranking of the number of deaths by cancer site in the world and three selected sub regions: African Region with a high child and adult mortality (AfrE), European Region with a very low child and adult mortality (EurA), and South East Asia Region with a low child and adult mortality (SearB). Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world, accounting for 17% of total cancer mortality, followed by cancers of stomach (12% of total), colon and rectum (9%), liver (9%), and breast (7%). In males, lung, stomach, and liver cancers were the three most common causes of cancer deaths. The leading cause of cancer deaths among females was breast cancer, but lung cancer was already one of the largest causes of female cancer mortality.

Table 1 Ranking of the global cancer deaths by site, 2000

Table 2 Ranking of selected regional cancer deaths by site, 2000

The distribution of common cancer incidence was somewhat similar to that of mortality: lung cancer was the most common cancer in the world in 2000, accounting for 13% of total cancer incidence, followed by cancers of colon and rectum (10% of total), breast (10%), stomach (10%), and liver (6%) (Table 3). As in mortality distribution, there is a significant variation in the distribution of site-specific cancer incidence by region (Table 4). The variations in the distribution of site-specific new cases of cancer by region were also similar to those observed in mortality distribution.

Table 3 Ranking of the global cancer incidence by site, 2000

Table 4 Ranking of the selected regional cancer incidence by site, 2000

We regret any inconvenience that this inaccuracy in the tables might have caused. We wish to thank Dr. Robert Dubrow of Yale University School of Medicine for bringing this matter to our attention.