Introduction: Cancer mortality among Indian women has undergone significant shifts over the past four decades, reflecting broader epidemiological and developmental transitions. Understanding how the relative burden of different cancer types evolves over time is essential for identifying emerging public health priorities and guiding regional cancer control strategies.
Objective: This study aims to examine temporal and regional trends in female cancer mortality in India from 1980 to 2021, focusing on the changing composition of deaths due to breast, cervix, and oral cavity cancers across six regions.
Data and Methodology: Using data from the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) study, this work employs compositional data analysis (CoDA), an optimal statistical framework for proportion data, to analyze trends in female cancer mortality in India from 1980 to 2021. Focusing on breast, cervix, and oral cavity cancer deaths across six Indian regions, CoDA appropriately models the relative nature of cancer mortality compositions using isometric log-ratio transformations and vector autoregressive modelling.
Findings & Conclusion: The analysis supports the cancer transition theory by revealing how the burden of infectious-related cancers (like cervix) declines while lifestyle-related cancers (breast) rise over time, though patterns vary regionally. This transition reflects India’s epidemiological shift and demographic changes. By explicitly modelling cancer death composition, this work offers nuanced insights into temporal and spatial cancer transitions in Indian women, guiding region-specific public health strategies.