Nearly 21 million people were diagnosed with cancer worldwide in 2024, and the global cancer burden is on track to grow by 67 percent to approximately 34 to 35 million new cases annually by 2050 — a trajectory driven not by environmental factors alone, but by the most predictable force in public health: people are living longer, and older people get cancer at higher rates.
The Global Cancer Statistics 2026 report, published July 8, 2026, in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians by the American Cancer Society and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, provides the most comprehensive global cancer data ever compiled. The simultaneously released WHO Global Status Report on Cancer 2026 adds policy context and frames the findings as a call for urgent global action.
