Cancer’s Unequal Burden: How Poverty, Geography and Poor Access Are Driving a Global Cancer Crisis

In 2024, more than 20.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer worldwide, say WHO and IARC. It killed 9.7 million people, nearly half in the age group of 30-69 years. Cancer also accounted for 16.5 per cent of all global deaths, making it the second-leading cause of death worldwide after cardiovascular disease. Childhood cancer is on a steep ascent: around 400,000 children and adolescents aged up to 19 years develop cancer every year. Among men, the most common cancer was of the lung, accounting for some 1.6 million new cases, followed by prostate cancer with 1.5 million cases. Among women, breast cancer led the burden, with 2.4 million new diagnoses, while lung cancer ranked second with around 1 million cases. Colorectal cancer was the third most common cancer in both groups, with an estimated 1.1 million new cases among men and 900,000 among women.