General Cancer Awareness

In 2024, an estimated 2,001,140 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 611,720 people will die from the disease.

The most common cancers (listed in descending order according to estimated new cases in 2024) are breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung and bronchus cancer, colon and rectum cancer, melanoma of the skin, bladder cancer, kidney and renal pelvis cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, endometrial cancer, pancreatic cancer, leukemia, thyroid cancer, and liver cancer.

Prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers account for an estimated 48% of all cancers diagnosed in men in 2024. For women, the three most common cancers are breast, lung, and colorectal, and they will account for an estimated 51% of all new cancer diagnoses in women in 2024.

The rate of new cases of cancer (cancer incidence) is 440.5 per 100,000 men and women per year (based on 2017–2021 cases).

The cancer death rate (cancer mortality) is 146.0 per 100,000 men and women per year (based on 2018–2022 deaths), and is higher among men than women (173.2 per 100,000 men and 126.4 per 100,000 women). When comparing groups based on race/ethnicity and sex, cancer mortality is highest in non-Hispanic Black men (208.3 per 100,000) and lowest in non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander women (82.6 per 100,000).

As of January 2022, there were an estimated 18.1 million cancer survivors in the United States. The number of cancer survivors is projected to increase to 22.5 million by 2032.

Approximately 40.5% of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetimes (based on 2017–2019 data). In 2024, an estimated 14,910 children and adolescents ages 0 to 19 will be diagnosed with cancer and 1,590 will die of the disease.

Estimated national expenditures for cancer care in the United States in 2020 were $208.9 billion. In future years, costs are likely to increase as the population ages and more people have cancer. Costs are also likely to increase as new, and often more expensive, treatments are adopted as standards of care.

Source of information: www.cancer.gov