Analysis of the Global Burden of Disease study highlights the trends in death and disability‐adjusted life years of leukemia from 1990 to 2017

BACKGROUND: The patterns of leukemia burden have dramatically changed in recent years. This study aimed to estimate the global trends of leukemia-related death and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) from 1990 to 2017. METHODS: The data was acquired from the latest version of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Estimated annual percentage changes (EAPCs) were calculated to estimate the trend of age-standardized rate (ASR) of death and DALYs due to leukemia and its main subtypes from 1990 to 2017. RESULTS: ) in 2017, with a 31.22% and 0.03% increase in absolute numbers from 1990 to 2017, respectively. Both of their ASR showed decreasing trends from 1990 to 2017 with the EAPCs being -1.04 (95% confidence interval CI = (-1.10--0.99) and -1.52 (95% CI = -1.59--1.44), respectively. Globally, the most pronounced decreasing trend of death and DALYs occurred in chronic myeloid leukemia with EAPCs of -2.76 (95% CI = -2.88--2.64) and -2.84 (95% CI = -2.97--2.70), respectively, while the trend increased in acute myeloid leukemia. The death and DALYs of leukemia decreased in most areas and countries with high socio-demographic index (SDI) including Bahrain, Finland, and Australia. CONCLUSIONS: The disease burden of death and DALYs due to leukemia decreased globally, and for most regions and countries from 1990 to 2017. However, the leukemia burden is still a substantial challenge globally and required adequate and affordable medical resources to improve the survival and quality of life of leukemia patients.