Discrepancies between the Spatial Distribution of Cancer Incidence and Mortality as an Indicator of Unmet Needs in Cancer Prevention and/or Treatment in Hungary

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Asher

There is limited evidence comparing how cancer incidence and mortality align spatially within a single country and how both relate to socioeconomic deprivation. This study analyzes malignant neoplasms overall and six specific cancer types in the Hungarian population aged 25–64 across 2007–2018 at municipal level by sex. Disease mapping, spatial regression, risk analysis, and spatial scan statistics assess consistency between incidence and mortality and their association with deprivation, revealing positive links with deprivation for mortality but only partial geographic overlap between high-incidence and high-mortality clusters. Differences in mortality risk persist even when incidence and mortality overlap, identifying unmet prevention and/or treatment needs and guiding targeted public health attention.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Study Aim and Rationale

Methods

Data, Study Period, and Population

Outcomes and Cancer Types

Analytic Approaches

Results

Associations with Socioeconomic Deprivation

Spatial Overlap Between Incidence and Mortality

Discrepancies Indicating Unmet Needs

Discussion

cancers Article Discrepancies between the Spatial Distribution of Cancer Incidence and Mortality as an Indicator of Unmet Needs in Cancer Prevention and/or Treatment in Hungary Róza Ádány 1,2,3,4, *, Attila Juhász 1, Csilla Nagy 1, Bernadett Burkali 1,5, Péter Pikó 1,2, Martin McKee 6 and Beatrix Oroszi 1 Citation: Ádány, R.; Juhász, A.; Nagy, C.; Burkali, B.; Pikó, P.; McKee, M.; Oroszi, B. Discrepancies between the Spatial Distribution of Cancer Incidence and Mortality as an Indicator of Unmet Needs in Cancer Prevention and/or Treatment in Hungary. Cancers 2024, 16, 2917 . [https://doi.org/10.3390/](https://doi.org/10.3390/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.3390/)cancers16162917 Academic Editor: Stefan Ambs Received: 5 July 2024 Revised: 12 August 2024 Accepted: 19 August 2024 Published: 22 August 2024 Corrected: 26 November 2024 Copyright: © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ([https://](https://)[ ](https://)[creativecommons.org/licenses/by/](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[ ](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[4.0/](4.0/)) . 1 Epidemiology and Surveillance Centre, Semmelweis University, 25. Üll˝oi Street, 1085 Budapest, Hungary; [juhasz.attila@semmelweis.hu](juhasz.attila@semmelweis.hu) (A.J.); [nagy.csilla@semmelweis.hu](nagy.csilla@semmelweis.hu) (C.N.); [burkali.bernadett@semmelweis.hu](burkali.bernadett@semmelweis.hu) (B.B.); [piko.peter@semmelweis.hu](piko.peter@semmelweis.hu) (P.P.); [oroszi.beatrix@semmelweis.hu](oroszi.beatrix@semmelweis.hu) (B.O.) 2 Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, 26 . Kassai Street, 4028 Debrecen, Hungary 3 HUN-REN Public Health Research Group, University of Debrecen, 26 . Kassai Street, 4028 Debrecen, Hungary 4 Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Semmelweis University, 1085 Budapest, Hungary 5 Department of Quality Management in Healthcare and Infection Control, Petz Aladár Teaching Hospital of Gy˝or-Moson-Sopron County, 2-4. Vasvári Pál Street, 9024 Gy˝or, Hungary 6 Department of Health Services Research and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK; [martin.mckee@lshtm.ac.uk](martin.mckee@lshtm.ac.uk) * Correspondence: adany.roza@med.unideb.hu or adany.roza@semmelweis.hu Simple Summary: Socioeconomic inequalities in cancer incidence and mortality have been studied extensively, but there has been no investigation of the spatial distribution of incidence and mortality within a country to see if they are consistent with each other and with deprivation. To fill this gap, we examined the spatial distribution of cancer incidence and mortality and their association with each other and with socioeconomic deprivation at the municipal level in Hungary, one of the countries with the most unfavourable cancer burden in the world. For different types of cancer, while mortality always showed positive associations with deprivation, there was only partial overlap between areas of high incidence and mortality across the country, with clusters often independent of deprivation. Even where incidence and mortality overlapped geographically, there were often significant differences in mortality risk. Discrepancies in the spatial distribution of cancer incidence and mortality are indicators of an unmet need for cancer prevention and/or treatment. Abstract: There is a rich body of literature on the distribution of cancer incidence and mortality in socioeconomically different world regions, but none of the studies has compared the spatial distribution of mortality and incidence to see if they are consistent with each other. All malignant neoplasms combined and cervical, colorectal, breast, pancreatic, lung, and oral cancers separately were studied in the Hungarian population aged 25–64 years for 2007–2018 at the

FAQs

What is the main goal of the study?

To evaluate whether the spatial distribution of cancer incidence and mortality within Hungary is consistent with each other and with socioeconomic deprivation, identifying unmet needs in prevention and/or treatment.

How was the analysis conducted?

The study examined multiple cancer types at the municipal level in Hungary (2007–2018) using disease mapping, spatial regression, risk analysis, and spatial scan statistics, stratified by sex and age group 25–64.

What did the study find about the relationship between deprivation and mortality?

Mortality showed positive associations with deprivation for each cancer type studied, although some specific incidence associations were not statistically significant for selected cancers and sexes.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Asher