Original Article Long-term Trends in Incidence and Mortality of Intrahepatic and Extrahepatic Bile Duct Cancer in Japan

Copyright © 2014 Mai Utada et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background: A report of multiple cases of bile duct cancer at a Japanese printing company raised concern about such cancers. We examined long-term trends in bile duct cancer in Japan. Methods: Data from 4 population-based cancer registries were used to calculate incidence between 1985 and 2007, and vital statistics were used to estimate mortality between 1985 and 2011. Age-standardized rates were calculated and analyzed using a joinpoint regression model. Results: Among men, the incidence rate of intrahepatic bile duct cancer increased throughout the observation period; among women, it increased until 1996–1998 and remained stable thereafter. The incidence rate of extrahepatic bile duct cancer was stable in men and decreased from 1993–1995 in women. In people aged 30 to 49 years, the incidence rates of intra- and extrahepatic bile duct cancer remained stable or decreased. The mortality rate of intrahepatic bile duct cancer increased in both sexes and in all age groups since 1996, while that of extrahepatic bile duct cancer decreased since 1992. In people aged 30 to 49 years, the mortality rates of intra- and extrahepatic bile duct cancer remained stable and decreased, respectively