This month, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its annual report on cancer titled Global status report on cancer 2026: the future we choose together. I provide a high level Q&A summary of see key statistics.
How many cancer cases were there in 2024?
“In 2024, there were 20.6 million new cancer cases worldwide5 (19.5 million new cancer cases excluding non-melanoma skin cancer: 9.9 million in men and 9.6 million in women). In men, the highest incidence was recorded for lung cancer6 (1.6 million cases), followed by prostate cancer (1.5 million cases) (Fig. 1). Among women, breast cancer had the highest incidence with 2.4 million new cases, followed by lung cancer6 with 1 million recorded cases (Fig. 1). For either sex, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer (1.1 million cases for men, 0.9 million cases for women)”
Where are most new cancer cases occurring?
“Asia that dominates the global distribution of new cancer cases, accounting for 53% of the total burden (attributed to its vast population), compared to 21% and 11% of new diagnoses for Europe and northern America respectively.”
Which cancers cause the most deaths?
“GLOBOCAN 2024 data provide specific mortality figures by cancer type. Among men, lung cancer7 was the leading cause of cancer-related deaths (1.3 million deaths), followed by colorectal cancer (0.5 million) and cancer of the liver and intrahepatic bile ducts (0.5 million). For women, breast cancer caused the highest number of cancer-related deaths (0.7 million), followed by lung cancer (0.6 million) and colorectal cancer (0.4 million) (5) (Fig. 4).”
How big a burden does cancer place on overall health?
“In 2021, cancer DALYs represented 9% of total DALYs [disability adjusted life years], a percentage that increases with age, income-level and time (Fig. 8) (3). Comparing data from 2000 and 2021, there is a striking overall increase from 1.2% to 1.4% of total DALYs among children <15 years old, an increase from 12.1% to 14.8% among people aged 30–49 years old, and an approximately 5% increase in people aged 50–69 years old (from 22.8% to 27.3%) and those 70+ (from 28.4% to 33.6%, noting that the percentage of cancer DALYs could have been even higher in the absence of the COVID-19 pandemic). These trends reflect both rising cancer incidence and successful communicable disease control in midlife and foreshadow rapid rising proportion of cancer burdens in LMICs.”
There are many more cancer statistics available in the full report here.
