Cancer cases worldwide are expected to soar in the coming decades, a report finds. Here’s why. – The Washington Post
The World Health Organization tempered optimism about improvements in cancer treatment and said global health care inequities are driving more cases and deaths.
Annual cancer cases are projected to rise considerably worldwide by 2050, according to a World Health Organization report on cancer published Wednesday. With its assessment, the United Nations body tempered optimism about improvements in cancer surveillance and treatment and warned that global health care inequities are driving further cases and deaths.
Around 20.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2024, according to the findings. That number could reach 35 million a year by 2050.
The new cases will disproportionately appear in lower-income countries with poorer access to cancer surveillance and treatment, according to the report.
“Far too many people are still being left behind,” André Ilbawi, the team lead for cancer control at the WHO, said at a news conference about the study this week.
Here are some of the report’s key findings:
Cancer rates will increase in the coming decades
The WHO projects that cancer incidence will increase by around 67 percent globally by 2050. That’s in line with predictions made in other recent reports.
The reasons for the increasing cancer rates are complex. Two key drivers the WHO’s report highlights are exposure to known risk factors, such as smoking and alcohol, and an aging population.
Experts have also cited improvements in cancer surveillance, which has allowed doctors to detect and diagnose more cancers than before.
In the United States, the rate of new cases has generally been stable in recent years, according to the National Institutes of Health. The WHO report predicts that cancer rates will increase in all regions across the world, though the biggest increases are projected in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region.
