By Jacqueline Howard, CNN
(CNN) — Around the world each year, tens of millions of people are told they have cancer, and millions die from the disease. Now, a report from the American Cancer Society projects that by 2050, the number of people with cancer could rise 77%.
The report, published Thursday in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, found that in 2022 – the most recent year for which data was available – about 20 million cases of cancer were diagnosed alongside 9.7 million deaths from cancer.
Those estimates suggest that about 1 in 5 people who are alive nowwill develop cancer in their lifetime, and around 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women will die from the disease.
When it comes to the number of cases around the world, “we think that number will go up to 35 million by 2050, largely due to an increasing population in the aging population,” said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society.
The new report says population growth and aging are key drivers of the size of the world’s cancer burden, with the global population of about 8 billion people in 2022 projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.
But if more people also use tobacco and more have obesity, along with other risk factors for cancer, the projected number of cancer cases could get even higher, Dahut warned, especially in low-income countries.
The most common cancer in the world
The new report includes global data on cancer incidence and death from the Global Cancer Observatory, a World Health Organization database.
The data shows that lung cancer was the most frequently diagnosed form worldwide in 2022, with almost 2.5 million new cases and more than 1.8 million deaths.
Overall, the top 10 cancer types in both men and women accounted for more than 60% of newly diagnosed cancer cases and cancer deaths, according to the report.
Cervical cancer was the leading cause of cancer death in 37 countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, South America and southeastern Asia, according to the report. The HPV or human papillomavirus vaccine can reduce a person’s risk of cervical cancer, but globally, only about 15% of eligible girls have received the vaccine, according to the American Cancer Society. There are also disparities in screening for cervical cancer.
Even though the causes of cancer can be complex, genetic or environmental, “about 50% of cancers are preventable,” Dr. Bilal Siddiqui, an oncologist and assistant professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who was not involved in the new report, said in an email.
“All patients should talk to their doctors to ensure they receive age-appropriate cancer screenings, and it’s important to make the key lifestyle changes that can reduce our risk for cancer, including stopping smoking, reducing alcohol intake, and staying physically active,” he said.
‘Cancer is a tidal wave coming’
Tobacco remains “the principal cause of lung cancer,” according to the report, which adds that the disease can largely be prevented through effective tobacco control policies and regulations. As for other types of cancer, reducing excess body weight, reducing alcohol consumption, not smoking and increasing physical activity can help lower a person’s risk.
The new report details how many low-income countries have high cancer death rates despite low cancer incidence, largely due to a lack of access to screening tools to spot the disease early and advanced treatment services.
The report helps highlight not only these global trends in cancer but also how cancer is becoming a “bigger health problem” in lower- and middle-income regions of the world, Burstein said.
“Cancer is a tidal wave coming into their communities,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire
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