A preliminary report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) revealed that, in 2020, 5.5 million men worldwide died from cancer, leading to 1.41 million new paternal orphans. The average age of the children at paternal death was 12 years old. The study by Guida et al is being presented during the Union for International Cancer Control’s 2024 World Cancer Congress (Abstract 000236).

In 2022, IARC’s study on maternal orphans found that more than 1 million children lost their mother to cancer worldwide. Children who have lost one or both parents often contend with numerous health, support, and educational disadvantages throughout their life, according to the study authors.

Study Methodology

The researchers estimated the number of new paternal orphans due to cancer by combining country- and age-specific male fertility rates with country- and age-specific number of deaths in women in 2020, using data from GLOBOCAN and the United Nations Population Prospects to assess country-specific mortality rates experienced by children.

Because fertility rates in men were not immediately available, the researchers used a variety of sources to estimate fertility rates, including civil registrations and vital statistics systems; The DHS Program Demographic and Health Surveys; UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys; and censuses. They scaled the estimated fertility age patterns to lead to the same number of births as for the females.

Results

The researchers found, in 2020, 5.5 million men died of cancer worldwide. They estimated that these deaths led to 1.41 million new paternal orphans, among which 72% were due to paternal deaths occurring in men older than age 45. Most of the orphans were from Asia (52%) and Africa (31%). Most of the paternal deaths from cancer were caused by gastrointestinal cancers (38%), of which the majority were liver cancer (14%), lung and trachea cancers (13%), and head and neck cancers (12%). On average, children were 12 years old at paternal death.

The researchers also found a strong inverse correlation between the Human Development Index (HDI) and the number of new paternal orphans per 100 male cancer deaths, but no clear association with HDI level was seen for the number of orphans per 100,000 children.

“This study completes the picture of orphans due to cancer. It helps increase awareness of the intergenerational impact of cancer deaths, highlighting the needs for the reduction in avoidable cancer deaths and research needs for the impacted generation,” concluded the study authors.

Financial Impact of a Parent’s Death Due to Cancer

“There are three lessons for me [from our study results]: There is extra impetus for us for cancer prevention, primary prevention, and improvement in survival,” said Valerie McCormack, PhD, Deputy Branch Head of Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology at IARC, during a press conference announcing the study’s findings.

“Secondly, from our original work on breast cancer in Africa, many of the families were impoverished due to financial toxicity of cancer treatment. There is an argument that orphans due to cancer are different from orphans due to other causes because of the financial toxicity. So, the family is impoverished and the children are left not only without a parent, but also that family, the remaining parent, has been financially drained by the cancer,” she said.

“And the third thing for ourselves as cancer researchers,” she continued, “we need to think outside the box. I think it’s crazy that it’s taken until 2024 to come up with these estimates. And there must be many more estimates of the impact of cancer on society, on families, or on anything that we need to think outside the box and make those estimates.”

Valerie McCormack, PhD, Deputy Branch Head of Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, is the corresponding author of this study.

Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.