EClinicalMedicine. 2025 Sep 12;88:103509. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103509. eCollection 2025 Oct.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Following the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2023 estimates, leukemias globally accounted for 573,000 new cases and 341,000 deaths in 2023. This study investigated the global burden of leukemia at level 3 (leukemia) and 4 (acute lymphoid leukemia-ALL, chronic lymphoid leukemia-CLL, acute myeloid leukemia-AML, chronic myeloid leukemia-CML and other leukemia) and its temporal trends from 1990 to 2023, at Italian national level.
METHODS: We used the GBD 2023 estimates to describe the leukemia age-standardized incidence (ASIR), mortality (ASMR), and disability-adjusted life years (ASDR) rates in Italy, the related 1990-2023 crude all-ages and age-standardized average annual rates of changes (ARC), as well the age-standardized mortality-to-incidence ratio (ASMIR). Finally, national estimates were compared to the GBD Global and High-middle Socio-Demographic Index (SDI) countries ones.
FINDINGS: In Italy in 2023, the GBD 2023 estimated 15,600 leukemia new cases, 7100 deaths and 136,700 DALYs. The 1990-2023 ARC for ASIR significantly improved only for rare leukemias (-0.46 95% UI: -0.60 to -0.26), while no significant changes were found for ALL, CLL, AML, CML. The ARC for ASMR and ASDR significantly improved for all leukemia subtypes, except for AML. The ARC for ASMR was -0.50 (-0.60 to -0.38) for ALL, -0.39 (-0.50 to -0.29) for CLL, 0.26 (0.07-0.49) for AML, -0.75 (-0.81 to -0.68) for CML and -0.49 (-0.59 to -0.30) for other leukemias. Similarly, the ARC for ASDR was -0.57 (-0.66 to -0.47) for ALL, -0.48 (-0.57 to -0.37) for CLL, -0.06 (-0.22 to 0.14) for AML, -0.80 (-0.85 to -0.74) for CML, and -0.57 (-0.66 to -0.41) for other leukemias. These findings translated into a similar pattern for the MIR.
INTERPRETATION: The global burden of leukemia in Italy is significantly reducing in terms of mortality and DALYs, especially for CML and ALL; on the other hand, AML-related measures greatly worsened over time. The Italian national ARC for incidence, mortality and DALYs showed comparable trends over time to the GBD Global and High-middle SDI countries ones, with specific differences.
FUNDING: This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health, through the contribution given to the Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste-Italy.
PMID:41181837 | PMC:PMC12572797 | DOI:10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103509