New reporting in The Cancer Atlas, Fourth Edition, showed that an estimated 50% of all cancer deaths worldwide are attributed to modifiable risk factors, including tobacco and alcohol use, infections, excess body weight, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, ultraviolet radiation, environmental pollutants, and occupational exposures. The report also found sharply rising rates in lung, colorectal, and breast cancers in lower-income countries; increasing rates of colorectal cancer among young adults in high-income countries; and continuing lack of universal health coverage, which, if implemented worldwide, according to the report, could save more than 7 million lives by 2030.¹ These findings were presented during The Cancer Prevention Research Conference 2025, held in London on June 25 to 27.

“We cannot have 10 million [people] dying worldwide, 618,000 in the United States alone. By working together to find ways to prevent cancer and detect it earlier, it can make a difference.”

— William L. Dahut, MD

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In addition, the report details the growing magnitude of the cancer burden throughout the world, with an estimated 19 million new cases of cancer, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer, as of 2022, and close to 10 million cancer deaths. In addition, according to the report’s authors, without global cancer control, the worldwide cancer burden is expected to increase by about 74% from 2022 to 2050 as a result of population aging and growth, with a ballooning cancer incidence to 33 million and 18 million cancer deaths.¹

Report Methodology and Highlights

The Fourth Edition of The Cancer Atlas is a collaborative effort by the American Cancer Society and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), and was developed with contributions from more than 70 leading experts and scientists from 35 institutions worldwide. The report is divided into three parts: Risk Factors, The Burden, and Taking Action, and it includes additional chapters to address emerging topics in cancer development, such as alcohol consumption, climate change, and building health-system resilience in conflict-impacted countries.

Additional findings from The Cancer Atlas follow:

• Lung cancer continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer and leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, with about 2.5 million new cases and 1.8 million deaths in 2022.
• Cervical cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death among women in 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In many of these countries, less than 10% of women between the ages of 30 and 49 have ever had cancer screening, compared with more than 80% in most Western countries. Coverage of the highly effective human papillomavirus vaccine varies widely, from just 3% in Central and South Asia to 86% in Australia and New Zealand.
• Cancer deaths are disproportionately higher in many low-income countries largely because of the inaccessibility to care. More than 90% of the population in low- and middle-income countries lack access to safe and timely surgical care; and 23 low- and middle-income countries with populations of over 1 million, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, do not have access to radiotherapy.
• Liver cancer is the sixth most frequently occurring cancer in the world and the third largest contributor to cancer mortality, with an estimated 870,000 new cases and 760,000 deaths in 2022. Major risk factors for the disease include hepatitis B virus infection, which accounts for more than half of all liver cancer cases occurring each year worldwide; hepatitis C virus; aflatoxin B1; alcohol and cigarette consumption; excess body weight; type 2 diabetes; and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.
• Worldwide, the average annual cancer incidence among children younger than age 15 is 150 cases per million people; and among adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19, the average annual incidence is 200 per million people. Less than 1 in 10 children with cancer survives 5 years after diagnosis in some countries in East Africa.
• Indigenous populations continue to experience inequities in cancer care and poorer outcomes, including a higher incidence and lower survival for cancers such as lung, liver, and cervix. In addition, screening rates for cervical cancer among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australia are only half of those of non-Indigenous women.
• Although advancements in cancer treatment and diagnostics have resulted in increasing numbers of cancer survivors worldwide, inequity in access to prevention strategies, screening, timely diagnosis, and effective treatment have led to worse survival outcomes, especially in low-resource countries.

A Call to Action

“The purpose of The Cancer Atlas is to make it easier for folks to work together on things that we can make an impact on,” said William L. Dahut, MD, Chief Scientific Officer for the American Cancer Society, during a press briefing announcing the release of The Cancer Atlas, Fourth Edition. “And while there is a lot of incredibly concerning information in The Cancer Atlas, we know that if we work together—our nonprofits, our government agencies, our worldwide leaders, our industry partners—there are things we can do to make an impact.”

Dr. Dahut continued: “And the status quo is unacceptable. We cannot have 10 million [people] dying worldwide, 618,000 in the United States alone. By working together to find ways to prevent cancer and detect it earlier, it can make a difference.”

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Dahut is Chief Scientific Officer for the American Cancer Society.

REFERENCE

1. The Cancer Atlas, Fourth Edition, published by the American Cancer Society and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Available at https://canceratlas.cancer.org/. Accessed July 1, 2025.