Objective To understand the premature mortality of the most common cancers in the residents in Putuo District， Shanghai for the goal to decrease the probability of premature cancer mortality.

Methods Life table was used to calculate crude and age-standardized incidence rate， mortality， and the probability of premature mortality caused by cancers among Putuo residents from 2004 to 2016. The annual percent change was used to describe the change of these indexes.

Results From 2004 to 2016， the crude incidence rate increased from 383.51/10⁵ to 573.94/10⁵ （APC=3.52%， P<0.01） while the age-standardized incidence rate changed from 223.20/10⁵ to 241.38/10⁵ （APC=3.52%， P<0.01）. The crude mortality rate changed from 229.99/10⁵ to 269.94/10⁵ （APC=1.64%， P<0.01） while the age-standardized mortality rate changed from 122.48/10⁵ to 87.49/10⁵ （APC=-2.04%， P<0.01）. The probability of premature mortality changed form 7.14% to 5.53% （AAPC=-2.29%， P<0.01）. The probability of premature mortality for male changed from 8.73% to 7.10% （AAPC=-1.74%， P=0.01） while the female from 5.54% to 3.88% （AAPC=-2.88%， P=0.08）. Trachea， bronchus and lung cancers were the top cancers causing premature mortality both for male and female. The probability of premature mortality showed a downward trend for both male liver cancer （APC=-3.83%， P=0.01） and female stomach cancer （APC=-4.17%， P<0.01）. The other types cancers did not show the significant changes （P>0.05）. Male nasopharyngeal carcinoma and female cervical carcinoma ranked top ten cancers causing probability of premature mortality but not the top ten cancers according to the crude mortality rate.

Conclusion The premature death caused by cancers shows a downward trend in general， but not in the female and most common cancers. The burden to reduce the premature mortality is still heavy. More efforts should focus on those cancers that are preventable and detectable by screening in order to decrease the premature cancer mortality.