OBJECTIVES: To estimate the clinical burden of head and neck cancer (HNC) to the Brazilian society through the calculation of disability-adjusted life years (DALY).

METHODS: DALY were calculated considering the estimated years of life lost (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) related to the disease. YLL was calculated based on the population life expectancy presented by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) for each age (Complete Mortality Table for Brazil 2014), and the mortality from HNC by age group (Brazilian Mortality Information System 2014). Age-weighting and a discount rate of 5%, as recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, were used. YLD were calculated by multiplying incidence of HNC in 2014 (GLOBOCAN), length of disability and weight of disability, related to disease stages and their respective duration of a conceptual model of HNC developed based on literature and specialists’ opinion. Disability weights were derived from the Global Burden of Disease Study (2013).

RESULTS: Considering the discount rate and age-weighting, there was a total loss of 216,356 years due to premature death from HNC, of which 175,354 years corresponded to male patients and 41,002 years to females. Based on an estimated incidence of 26,091 HNC cases in 2014, the YLD value was 47,502. Total DALY due to HNC in 2014 was 263,858.

CONCLUSIONS: As expected, due to cancer location and treatment pattern, HNC has an important clinical impact on population health, not only because of high mortality, but also considering the disease related functioning health loss, since years lived with disability were responsible for almost 20% of total DALY.