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Worldwide cancer data

Global cancer statistics for the most common cancers in the
world.
Find information about world cancer statistics for the most common types of
cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in 2020, the latest year
available.
There were an estimated 18.1 million cancer cases around the world in 2020.
Of these, 9.3 million cases were in men and 8.8 million in women. The most
common cancers globally are listed in the tables below.
> Jump to tables
With this growing global burden, prevention of cancer is one of the most
significant public health challenges of the 21st century. Our Cancer Prevention
Recommendations work together as an overall way of living healthily to prevent
cancer through changing dietary patterns, reducing alcohol consumption,
increasing physical activity, and achieving and maintaining a healthy body
weight.
As well as action by individuals, achieving healthy patterns of diet and
sustained physical activity over the life course requires concerted and
integrated action from all sectors of society, including civil society, private
sector, and health and other professions.
> Read more about our global policy work < https://www.wcrf.org/policy/>

Global cancer incidence: both sexes

Breast and lung cancers were the most common cancers worldwide,
contributing 12.5% and 12.2% of the total number of new cases diagnosed
in 2020.
Colorectal cancer was the third most common cancer with 1.9 million new
cases in 2020, contributing 10.7% of new cases.
In all tables, figures for % of all cancers exclude non-melanoma skin cancer.
Rank Cancer New cases in 2020 % of all cancers

All cancers* 18,094,716

1 Breast 2,261,419 12.5

2 Lung 2,206,771 12.2

3 Colorectal** 1,931,590 10.7

4 Prostate 1,414,259 7.8

5 Stomach 1,089,103 6.0

6 Liver 905,677 5.0

7 Cervix uteri 604,127 3.3

8 Oesophagus 604,100 3.3

9 Thyroid 586,202 3.2

10 Bladder 573,278 3.2

Non-Hodgkin
11 544,352 3.0
lymphoma

12 Pancreas 495,773 2.7

13 Leukaemia 474,519 2.6

14 Kidney 431,288 2.4

15 Corpus uteri 417,367 2.3

16 Lip, oral cavity 377,713 2.1

17 Melanoma of skin 324,635 1.8

18 Ovary 313,959 1.7

Brain, central nervous

19 308,102 1.7
system

20 Larynx 184,615 1.0

21 Multiple myeloma 176,404 1.0

22 Nasopharynx 133,354 0.7

23 Gallbladder 115,949 0.6

24 Oropharynx 98,412 0.5

25 Hypopharynx 84,254 0.5

26 Hodgkin lymphoma 83,087 0.5

27 Testis 74,458 0.4

28 Salivary glands 53,583 0.3

29 Vulva 45,240 0.3

30 Penis 36,068 0.2

31 Kaposi sarcoma 34,270 0.2

32 Mesothelioma 30,870 0.2

33 Vagina 17,908 0.1

Global cancer incidence in men

Lung cancer was the most common cancer in men worldwide, contributing
15.4% of the total number of new cases diagnosed in 2020.
The top three – lung, prostate and colorectal cancers – contributed 41.9% of
all cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer).
Other common cancers contributing more than 5% were stomach and liver.
Rank Cancer New cases in 2020 % of all cancers

All cancers* 9,342,957

1 Lung 1,435,943 15.4

2 Prostate 1,414,259 15.1

3 Colorectal** 1,065,960 11.4

4 Stomach 719,523 7.7

5 Liver 632,320 6.8

6 Bladder 440,864 4.7

7 Oesophagus 418,350 4.5

Non-Hodgkin
8 304,151 3.3
lymphoma

9 Kidney 271,249 2.9

10 Leukaemia 269,503 2.9

11 Lip, oral cavity 264,211 2.8

12 Pancreas 262,865 2.8

13 Melanoma of skin 173,844 1.9

Brain, central nervous

14 168,346 1.8
system

15 Larynx 160,265 1.7

16 Thyroid 137,287 1.5

17 Multiple melanoma 98,613 1.1

18 Nasopharynx 96,371 1.0

19 Oropharynx 79,045 0.8

20 Testis 74,458 0.8

21 Hypopharynx 70,254 0.8

22 Hodgkin lymphoma 48,981 0.5

23 Gallbladder 41,062 0.4

24 Penis 36,068 0.4

25 Salivary glands 29,694 0.3

26 Kaposi sarcoma 23,413 0.3

27 Mesothelioma 21,560 0.2

Global cancer incidence in women

Breast cancer was the most common cancer in women worldwide,
contributing 25.8% of the total number of new cases diagnosed in 2020.
The top three – breast, colorectal and lung cancers – contributed 44.5% of
all cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer).
Cervical cancer was the fourth most common cancer in women,
contributing 6.9% of the total number of new cases diagnosed in 2020.
Rank Cancer New cases in 2020 % of all cancers

All cancers* 8,751,759

1 Breast 2,261,419 25.8

2 Colorectal ** 865,630 9.9

3 Lung 770,828 8.8

4 Cervix uteri 604,127 6.9

5 Thyroid 448,915 5.1

6 Corpus uteri 417,367 4.8

7 Stomach 369,580 4.2

8 Ovary 313,959 3.6

9 Liver 273,357 3.1

Non-Hodgkin
10 240,201 2.7
lymphoma

11 Pancreas 232,908 2.7

12 Leukaemia 205,016 2.3

13 Oesophagus 185,750 2.1

14 Kidney 160,039 1.8

15 Melanoma of skin 150,791 1.7

Brain, central nervous

16 139,756 1.6
system

17 Bladder 132,414 1.5

18 Lip, oral cavity 113,502 1.3

19 Multiple myeloma 77,791 0.9

20 Gallbladder 74,887 0.9

21 Vulva 45,240 0.5

22 Nasopharynx 36,983 0.4

23 Hodgkin lymphoma 34,106 0.4

24 Larynx 24,350 0.3

25 Salivary glands 23,889 0.3

 26 Oropharynx 19,367 0.2

27 Vagina 17,908 0.2

28 Hypopharynx 14,000 0.2

29 Kaposi sarcoma 10,857 0.1

30 Mesothelioma 9,310 0.1

*Excludes non-melanoma skin cancer; includes cases of “other and unspecified

cancers” (not listed here)
**Calculated by adding cases of colon cancer and cases of rectal cancer

Notes
The data on this page comes from the Global Cancer Observatory, owned by
the World Health Organization/International Agency for Research on Cancer,
and is used with permission. The cancer incidence figures and ASRs were
compiled using the data available here < https://gco.iarc.fr/today/online-analysis-
table> (last accessed 23 March 2022). For queries about our cancer statistics
please email the Research Interpretation team: [email protected].

RELATED CONTENT
Differences in cancer incidence and mortality across the globe
Global cancer data by country
Cancer rates by Human Development Index
Cancer survival statistics
Skin cancer statistics
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Worldwide cancer data

Cancer survival statistics

Cancer rates by Human Development

Index
 Colorectal cancer statistics

Global cancer data by country

Gallbladder cancer statistics

Kidney cancer statistics

Bladder cancer statistics

Breast cancer statistics

Cervical cancer statistics

Endometrial cancer statistics

Mouth and oral cancer statistics

Liver cancer statistics

Nasopharyngeal cancer statistics

Oesophageal cancer statistics

Lung cancer statistics

Pancreatic cancer statistics

Prostate cancer statistics

Stomach cancer statistics

Ovarian cancer statistics

Skin cancer statistics

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