# Parkin 2005: Global cancer statistics, 2002

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-parkin-global-cancer-statistics-2002-cacancer-2005/  
OnCo record `paper-parkin-global-cancer-statistics-2002-cacancer-2005` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The world cancer count for 2002: about 10.9 million new cases and about 24.6 million people living within three years of a cancer diagnosis, with lung, breast and colorectal cancers the three most common.

## Summary

Parkin, Bray, Ferlay and Pisani presented the GLOBOCAN 2002 estimates of incidence, mortality and prevalence for 26 cancers worldwide. They estimated 10.9 million new cases, 6.7 million deaths and 24.6 million people alive within three years of diagnosis. Lung cancer was the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death, followed by breast and colorectal cancers for incidence, and the paper documented the contrasting patterns of developed and developing regions, including the large burden of stomach, liver and cervical cancers in the latter.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Journal: CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
- Year: 2005
- DOI: 10.3322/canjclin.55.2.74
- Authors: Parkin DM, Bray F, Ferlay J, Pisani P.
- Findings: About 10.9 million new cancer cases, 6.7 million cancer deaths and 24.6 million people living with cancer within three years of diagnosis in 2002.; Lung cancer the most common cancer (about 1.35 million cases) and leading cause of cancer death; breast (1.15 million) and colorectal (1 million) cancers next.; Stomach, liver and cervical cancers made up a much larger share of the burden in developing countries.
- What it means: The first of the modern GLOBOCAN summaries in CA, it set the template that Jemal, Torre, Bray and Sung later followed and provides the 2002 baseline for tracking how the global burden has grown and shifted.
- Caveats: Registry coverage in 2002 was far thinner than today, so many estimates were rough.; Superseded by later GLOBOCAN releases.

## Sources

- Full text (DOI): https://doi.org/10.3322/canjclin.55.2.74
- IARC Global Cancer Observatory: https://gco.iarc.who.int/today

## Connected records

- key papers: [Jemal 2011: Global cancer statistics (GLOBOCAN 2008)](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-jemal-global-cancer-statistics-2011-cacancer/)
- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-hr-positive/), [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/)
- institutions: [International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO)](https://onco.cc/institutions/iarc/)
- terms: [Incidence versus prevalence](https://onco.cc/terms/incidence-vs-prevalence/), [Mortality](https://onco.cc/terms/mortality/)
- people: [Freddie Bray](https://onco.cc/people/bray-freddie/)
- technologies: [Cancer registries and population surveillance](https://onco.cc/technologies/cancer-registries-surveillance/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/paper-parkin-global-cancer-statistics-2002-cacancer-2005.json