Objective To analyze the cancer mortality and epidemiological characteristics of digestive system cancer in Xianyou County, Fujian Province, and to provide a scientific evidence for formulating preventive measures for digestive system cancer.

Methods Excel and SPSS software were used to collect the monitoring data of digestive system cancer death in Xianyou County from 2014 to 2018, and then analyzed the mortality, the standardized rate (according to the Chinese 2000 population census) and the cause of death.

Results From 2014 to 2018, the deaths of malignant tumors in Xianyou County accounted for 35.00% of all deaths. Among them, the four common digestive system malignant tumors (gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer and colorectal cancer) accounted for 62.44% of malignant tumors. Gastric cancer ranked first and accounted for 27.36%. Average annual rate of crude mortality and standardized mortality of malignant tumor in the digestive system were 108.93/10⁵ and 89.34/10⁵, respectively, and the ratio of male to female was 2.27 to 1. Significant differences were found between town and village, as the terrain gets lower, the death rate goes down gradually. Compared with the data of 2011-2012, the standardized death rate of gastric cancer, esophageal cancer and liver cancer were reduced by 29.71%, 23.92% and 12.06%, respectively, while the rate of colorectal cancer was increased by 28.80% and the average annual growth rate was 7.83%.

Conclusion Although the death rates of gastric cancer, esophageal cancer and liver cancer have decreased significantly, the malignant tumor of the digestive system is still the main disease that causes the death of residents in Xianyou County, Putian City. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the education of health in order to achieve the early discovery, diagnosis and treatment.