Alarming Epidemiological Trends in Mean Age at Death of Elderly Cancer Patients

Abstract Background Despite the lack of hard data on cancer incidence in Slovakia (SR), the cancer burden in the elderly population (65+ years old) is increasing. Methods Age-standardised national incidence and mortality (to World population: ASR-W) and mean age of the elderly cancer patients were calculated. A log-linear joinpoint regression model was used to analyse time-trends in the epidemiological indicators. Results We found a significant decrease in the mean age at death of the elderly cancer patients in SR. Males’ age decreased from 75.46 years in 2013 to 75.00 years in 2023 (APC = – 0.07%, p < 0.001), and females’ from 77.53 years in 2015 to 76.74 years in 2023 (APC = – 0.12%, p < 0.001) despite the increasing mean age of the elderly population. The proportion of elderly among all incident cancer cases is consistently higher (56.54%) than that of younger patients (0–64 years) (43.46%) and increases continuously (AAPC = 0.20% between 1978 and 2014, p = 0.04; APC = 2.03%, p = 0.04 between 2012 and 2014). Despite slightly decreasing cancer mortality among the elderly in recent years, their relative proportion in cancer mortality (74.14%) increases substantially (AAPC = 0.55% between 1978 and 2023, p < 0.001). Between 2010 and 2014, non-melanoma skin cancer is the most frequent incident diagnosis with the highest increase since 1996–1999. The leading cause of cancer-related death between 2019 and 2023 is lung cancer in males and breast cancer in females. Conclusions The analysis of available data suggests that worsening cancer indicators in the elderly in SR may be due to underdiagnosis and lack of available treatment, as SR has some of the worst access to innovative treatments in the EU.