CancerStats Key Facts on Cancer

CancerStats Key Facts on All Cancers Combined

This section presents key statistics on all cancers combined including the incidence of cancer, cancer survival and cancer mortality, and the main risk factors for cancer. A table of the latest cancer statistics is also available.

• You can download a PDF of the All Cancer Key Facts web page.

The latest UK cancer incidence statistics are for 2006 and mortality for 2007. You can access these by downloading the summary sheets showing number of cases and deaths or incidence and mortality rates for 49 types of cancer. Find out why more up to date cancer statistics are not yet available.

How common is cancer?

• There are more than 200 types of cancer, each with different causes, symptoms and treatments.
• There are around 293,600 new cases of cancer diagnosed each year in the UK.
• Every two minutes someone is diagnosed with cancer in the UK.
• More than 1 in 3 people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime.
• Breast, lung, bowel and prostate cancers together account for over half of all new cancers each year.
• Cancer can develop at any age, but is most common in older people. Around three-quarters of cases occur in people aged 60 and over.
• Around one per cent of cancers occur in children, teenagers and young adults.
• Overall cancer incidence rates have increased by one quarter since 1975 but have remained fairly stable over the past decade.
• There have been increases in the incidence of potentially avoidable cancers such as malignant melanoma (skin), uterine (womb) and kidney cancers.
• Over the last decade the incidence rate of stomach cancer has decreased for both sexes. Cervical cancer in women is decreasing and the male lung cancer incidence rates decreased by a fifth.
• Worldwide there were around 11 million new cases of cancer in 2002 and a quarter of these were in Europe.
• Cancer is the number one fear for the British public, topping the list over Alzheimer's, heart attack and terrorism.

Read more in-depth UK cancer incidence statistics for common cancers.

Find out why this may differ to other published cancer registrations data.

How many people survive cancer?

• Half of people diagnosed with cancer now survive their disease for more than five years.
• The average ten-year cancer survival rate has doubled over the last 30 years.
• More than seven out of ten children with cancer are now successfully treated compared with fewer than 3 in 10 in the 1960s.

Read more in-depth cancer survival statistics.

How many people die from cancer?

• Cancer causes one in four of all deaths in the UK.
• Around three-quarters of cancer deaths occur in people aged 65 and over.
• In 2007, there were more than 155,000 cancer deaths in the UK.
• Every four minutes another person dies of cancer in the UK.
• The overall cancer death rate has fallen by 10% over the last decade.
• More than one in five of all cancer deaths are from lung cancer.

Read more in-depth UK cancer mortality statistics.

What causes cancer?

• An individual's risk of developing cancer depends on many factors, including age, lifestyle and genetic make-up.
• It is estimated that up to half of all cancer cases diagnosed in the UK could be avoided if people made changes to their lifestyle, such as stopping smoking, moderating alcohol intake, maintaining a healthy bodyweight and avoiding excessive sun exposure.
• Cigarette smoking has been identified as the single most important cause of preventable death in the UK: overall, more than a quarter of all deaths from cancer (including almost 90% of lung cancer deaths) are linked to tobacco smoking.
• Estimates suggest that, in the UK, up to 13,000 cases of cancer could be avoided if no-one exceeded a body mass index (BMI) of 25.
• Research suggests that each of the following increase the risk of certain cancers: alcohol consumption, a low fibre diet, low consumption of fruit and vegetables, high consumption of red and processed meats and higher intake of salt or saturated fats.
• Excessive exposure to UV radiation (from the sun or sunbeds) is the most important modifiable risk factor for skin cancers.
• A small number of infectious agents, especially certain viruses, play a key role in causing certain types of cancer.
• It is estimated that inherited factors cause up to 10% of all cancers.
• Factors such as the age at which a women has her first child and number of children, affect risk of the most common female cancers.

Read more in-depth information on the causes of cancer.

All cancers combined statistics table

*excluding non-melanoma skin cancer **age-standardised to the European population