Background:

In Mexico, cancer mortality rates have undergone changes over the past decades.

Objective:

To analyze the evolution of cancer mortality rates in Mexico between 1990 and 2021.

Materials and methods:

Based on the Global Burden of Disease study, the mortality rates for the 10 most prevalent types of cancer in Mexico were obtained, at the national and regional level and by states, considering different age groups and gender. Global Burden of Disease reassigns misclassified causes and distributes them among different types of cancer; subsequently, it models and adjusts the causes to the total number of deaths with a model of a set of causes of death and a cause corrector, which corrects INEGI’s mortality records.

Results:

The cancer mortality rate went from 117.87 in 1990 to 84.18 in 2021. In women, breast, cervical, stomach and lung cancers were the most frequent. In men, the most common were prostate, stomach, lung, and colon and rectum cancer. The decrease in cancer mortality for men and women stood out, particularly from lung and cervical cancer.

Conclusions:

The results provide information for the development of health policies and specific prevention and control strategies to address the impact of cancer in Mexico.