Worldwide

Here you can find information about world cancer statistics for the most common cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in 2008, the latest year available.

There were an estimated 12.7 million cancer cases around the world in 2008, of these 6.6 million cases were in men and 6.0 million in women. This number is expected to increase to 21 million by 2030.

This growing cancer burden, within the overall context of NCDs, was a key focus of the September 2011 UN High Level Meeting on NCDs.

• Both sexes
• Men
• Women

Both sexes

• Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide contributing nearly 13% of the total number of new cases diagnosed in 2008.
• Breast cancer (women only) is the second most common cancer with nearly 1.4 million new cases in 2008.
• Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer with over 1.2 million new cases in 2008.

Rank	Cancer	New cases diagnosed in 2008 (1,000s)	Per cent of all cancers (excl. non-melanoma skin cancer)
1	Lung	1608	12.7
2	Breast	1384	10.9
3	Colorectum	1235	9.8
4	Stomach	989	7.8
5	Prostate	899	7.1
6	Liver	750	5.9
7	Cervix uteri	530	4.2
8	Oesophagus	482	3.8
9	Bladder	383	3.0
10	Non-Hodgkin lymphoma	356	2.8
11	Leukaemia	350	2.8
12	Corpus uteri (endometrium)	288	2.3
13	Pancreas	279	2.2
14	Kidney	274	2.2
15	Lip, oral cavity	263	2.1
16	Brain, nervous system	238	1.9
17	Ovary	225	1.8
18	Thyroid	213	1.7
19	Melanoma of skin	200	1.6
20	Larynx	151	1.2
21	Gallbladder	145	1.1
22	Other pharynx	137	1.1
23	Multiple myeloma	103	0.8
24	Nasopharynx	84	0.7
25	Hodgkin lymphoma	68	0.5
26	Testis	52	0.4

Source: GLOBOCAN 2008 database (version 1.2) http://globocan.iarc.fr

Men

• Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide in men contributing more than 16% of the total number of new cases diagnosed in 2008.
• The top three, lung, prostate and colorectal cancers, contribute about 40% of all cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer).
• Other common cancers contributing more than 5% are stomach and liver.

Rank	Cancer	New cases diagnosed in 2008 (1,000s)	Per cent of all cancers (excl. non-melanoma skin cancer)
1	Lung	1092	16.5
2	Prostate	899	13.6
3	Colorectum	664	10.0
4	Stomach	640	9.7
5	Liver	523	7.9
6	Oesophagus	326	4.9
7	Bladder	294	4.4
8	Non-Hodgkin lymphoma	200	3.0
9	Leukaemia	195	3.0
10	Lip, oral cavity	170	2.6
11	Kidney	169	2.6
12	Pancreas	145	2.2
13	Larynx	130	2.0
14	Brain, nervous system	127	1.9
15	Other pharynx	109	1.6
16	Melanoma of skin	102	1.5
17	Gallbladder	58	0.9
18	Nasopharynx	58	0.9
19	Multiple myeloma	55	0.8
20	Testis	52	0.8
21	Thyroid	49	0.7
22	Hodgkin lymphoma	40	0.6

Source: GLOBOCAN 2008 database (version 1.2) http://globocan.iarc.fr

Women

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide in women contributing nearly 23% of the total number of new cases diagnosed in 2008.
• The top three, breast, colorectal and cervical cancers, contribute more than 40% of all cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer).
• Other common cancers contributing more than 5% are lung and stomach.

Rank	Cancer	New cases diagnosed in 2008 (1,000s)	Per cent of all cancers (excl. non-melanoma skin cancer)
1	Breast	1384	22.9
2	Colorectum	571	9.4
3	Cervix uteri	530	8.8
4	Lung	516	8.5
5	Stomach	349	5.8
6	Corpus uteri (endometrium)	288	4.8
7	Liver	226	3.7
8	Ovary	225	3.7
9	Thyroid	164	2.7
10	Non-Hodgkin lymphoma	157	2.6
11	Oesophagus	155	2.6
12	Leukaemia	155	2.6
13	Pancreas	134	2.2
14	Brain, nervous system	111	1.8
15	Kidney	104	1.7
16	Melanoma of skin	98	1.6
17	Lip, oral cavity	93	1.5
18	Bladder	88	1.5
19	Gallbladder	87	1.4
20	Multiple myeloma	48	0.8
21	Other pharynx	28	0.5
22	Hodgkin lymphoma	28	0.5
23	Nasopharynx	27	0.4
24	Larynx	21	0.3

Source: GLOBOCAN 2008 database (version 1.2) http://globocan.iarc.fr