This month, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its annual report on cancer titled Global Situation Report on Cancer 2026: The future we choose together. I provide a high-level Q&A summary of the key statistics to look at.
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). Among men, the highest incidence was recorded for lung cancer6 (1.6 million cases), followed by prostate cancer (1.5 million cases) (Fig. 1). In women, the incidence of breast cancer was the highest, 2.4 million new cases, followed by lung cancer, with 6 million recorded cases (Figure 1), with 1.1 million cases for men, 0.9 million cases for women.
Where are the most new cases of cancer occurring?
“Asia dominates the global distribution of new cancer cases, accounting for 53% of the total burden (attributed to its huge population), while Europe and North America account for 21% and 11% of new diagnoses, respectively.”
Which cancers cause the most deaths?
“GLOBOCAN 2024 data provides specific mortality figures by cancer type. Among men, lung cancer was the leading cause of 7 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) (Figure 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 (Figure 8) (3). Comparing 2000 and 2021 data, total DALYs have increased significantly by 1.2% to 1.4% in children under 15 years of age, by 12.1% to 14.8% in people aged 30–49 years, and by about 5% in people aged 50–69 years (22.8% to 27.3%) and 70+ (from 28.4% to 33.6%, given that the percentage of cancer DALYs would 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 a rapidly increasing proportion of the cancer burden in LMICs.
More cancer statistics are available in the full report Here.
