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The IARC count for 2018: about 18.1 million new cancer cases worldwide, with lung cancer the most commonly diagnosed and most lethal, and about one in five men and one in six women developing cancer during their lifetime.
GLOBOCAN 2018 estimated cancer incidence and mortality for 36 cancers in 185 countries from national and regional registries and modelling. It counted 18.1 million new cases in 2018. Lung cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death, followed for incidence by female breast, colorectal and prostate cancers. The report described how cancer patterns differ with a country's level of development, with infection-related cancers of the cervix, liver and stomach concentrated in transitioning economies.
This was the most cited description of the global cancer burden until the 2020 release and is the reference behind many national cancer plans of the late 2010s. Its country-level comparisons showed where prevention, such as HPV and hepatitis B vaccination and tobacco control, would have the largest effect.
This paper is the place to check how solid a given country's GLOBOCAN 2018 figure is, which matters when the numbers are used to argue for national cancer plans.
CONCORD is the evidence base for national cancer plans and for the statement that where you live changes your chance of surviving cancer. Its country tables are the benchmark health systems use to judge early diagnosis and treatment access.
GBD is the other major global cancer count alongside GLOBOCAN, using different methods, and its burden measures in years of life lost make the case that cancer control is largely a problem of ageing populations in middle-income countries.
China accounts for roughly a quarter of the world's cancer cases, and this paper is the reference that made its burden legible internationally. It explains why Chinese trial programmes and drug pipelines concentrate on lung, stomach, oesophageal and liver cancers.
One of the most cited descriptions of the global cancer burden of the 2010s, it framed the shift of cancer towards lower-income countries that later GLOBOCAN releases have confirmed.
Shares Freddie Bray, Torre 2015: Global cancer statistics, 2012, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality.
Shares Freddie Bray, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO).
Shares Torre 2015: Global cancer statistics, 2012, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO).
Shares Sung 2021: GLOBOCAN 2020, the year breast cancer overtook lung cancer as the most diagnosed cancer, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO).
Shares Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, Non-small-cell lung cancer.
Shares Allemani 2018: CONCORD-3, global surveillance of cancer survival 2000 to 2014, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality.
Shares Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, Colorectal cancer.
Shares Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality.