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The IARC count for 2020: about 19.3 million new cancer cases worldwide, with female breast cancer overtaking lung cancer as the most commonly diagnosed cancer for the first time, and a projected rise to about 28 million cases a year by 2040.
GLOBOCAN 2020, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, estimated incidence and mortality for 36 cancers in 185 countries. It counted an estimated 19.3 million new cases (18.1 million excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in 2020. Female breast cancer became the most commonly diagnosed cancer, ahead of lung, colorectal, prostate and stomach cancers, while lung cancer remained the leading cause of cancer death. The authors projected 28.4 million cases in 2040, a 47% rise on 2020 driven by population growth and ageing, with the largest relative increases in countries undergoing economic transition.
This report marked the shift of the global cancer burden towards breast cancer and towards lower-income countries, and it is the baseline most 2020s policy documents cite. The GLOBOCAN 2022 release has since updated the totals.
This is the methods and overview companion to the widely cited Sung 2021 report and the reference for how the 2020 figures were built.
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.
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.
Shares Freddie Bray, Bray 2018: GLOBOCAN 2018, worldwide incidence and mortality for 36 cancers, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality.
Shares Freddie Bray, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO).
Shares Freddie Bray, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO).
Shares Bray 2018: GLOBOCAN 2018, worldwide incidence and mortality for 36 cancers, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO).
Shares Bray 2018: GLOBOCAN 2018, worldwide incidence and mortality for 36 cancers, Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, Colorectal cancer.
Shares Bray 2018: GLOBOCAN 2018, worldwide incidence and mortality for 36 cancers, Mortality, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.
Shares Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO).
Shares Incidence versus prevalence, Mortality, Non-small-cell lung cancer.