Cancer burden shifts as incidence climbs: What to know

In 2025, an estimated 618,120 people will die from cancer in the U.S. The figure represents about 30% of the estimated 2,041,910 new cancer cases the U.S. is expected to see in 2025.

As the cancer mortality rate continues to  fall, incidence rates in the U.S. have increased at varying degrees across demographics and state lines, according to the American Cancer Society's annual cancer statistics report published Jan. 16 in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Here are 10 key findings from the report:

1. Cancer mortality rates continue to be the best metric to track progress in the fight against cancer because, compared to incidence and survival rates, mortality rates are not as influenced by diagnostic advancements.
   
   
2. As of 2022, the age-adjusted cancer death rate has dropped 34% since its peak in 1991. This decrease equates to 4.5 million fewer cancer deaths. The overall cancer death rate dropped by 1.7% per year between 2013 and 2022.
   
   
3. The National Cancer Institute estimates that cancer-related medical costs in the U.S. hit $208.9 billion in 2020, with $21.1 billion of those costs falling on patients.
   
   
4. Cancer incidence rates in women ages 50-64 have surpassed men of the same age. Rates in women under 50 are now 82% higher than their male counterparts, up from 51% in 2002.
   
   
5. Lagging progress has been made against pancreatic cancer, where both incidence and mortality rates are increasing.
   
   
6. Despite the overall decline in cancer mortality, death rates have increased for oral cavity, pancreas, uterine corpus and liver (in females) cancers.
   
   
7. Cancer mortality for Native Americans is 2 to 3 times higher compared to white individuals for kidney, liver, stomach and cervical cancers.
   
   
8. Black individuals are twice as likely to die of prostate, stomach, and uterine corpus cancers and 50% more likely to die from cervical cancer compared to white individuals.
   
   
9. Incidence rates continue to climb for breast (female), prostate, pancreatic, uterine corpus, melanoma (female), liver (female), oral cancers associated with the human papillomavirus and colorectal cancers. 
   
   
10. Cancer incidence in children aged 14 and younger has declined, but has risen among adolescents age 15-19. Since 1970, mortality rates have dropped by 70% in children and by 63% in adolescents.

The American Cancer Society also published an educational companion piece "Cancer Facts & Figures 2025," and a Cancer Statistics Center website alongside the report. 

Here are three key takeaways from the data:

1. The five leading sites of new cancer cases are:
   
   
   • Male: Prostate 30%, lung and bronchus 11%, colon and rectum 8%, urinary bladder 6% and melanoma of the skin 6%
     
     
   • Female: Breast 32%, lung and bronchus 12%, colon and rectum 7%, uterine corpus 7%, melanoma of the skin 4% and non-hodgkin lymphoma 4%
     
     
2. The five leading sites of cancer death are:
   
   
   • Male: Lung and bronchus 20%, prostate 11%, colon and rectum 9%, pancreas 8%, and liver and intrahepatic bile duct 6%
     
     
   • Female: Lung and bronchus 21%, breast 14%, pancreas 8%, colon and rectum 8% and uterine corpus 5%
     
     
3. The ACS' Cancer Statistics Center website used National Cancer of Health Statistics and CDC data to track cancer death and incidence rates over time. Rates are represented as the average annual rate per 10,000 people, age-adjusted to the U.S. population in 2000.
   
   The cancer death rate shift among females between 2000 and 2022 was:
   
   
   • Breast: 26.6 to 18.7
   • Cervix: 2.8 to 2.1
   • Colorectum: 17.8 to 11.0
   • Leukemia: 5.9 to 4.3
   • Liver and intrahepatic bile duct: 4.3 to 5.3
   • Lung and bronchus: 41.2 to 26.0
   • Pancreas: 9.3 to 9.7
   • Stomach: 3.2 to 2.0
   • Uterine corpus: 4.1 to 5.4 
   • Uterus (cervix and corpus combined): 6.9 to 7.4
   
   The cancer incidence rate shift among females between 2000 and 2021 was:
   
   
   • Breast: 136.6 to 144.6
   • Cervix: 7.4 to 6.7 
   • Colorectum: 45.7 to 29.9
   • Leukemia: 10.1 to 12.0
   • Liver and intrahepatic bile duct: 3.1 to 5.6
   • Lung and bronchus: 48.8 to 41.6
   • Pancreas: 9.6 to 12.7
   • Stomach: 5.3 to 5.6
   • Uterine corpus: 24.5 to 29.0
   
   The cancer death rate shift among males between 2000 and 2022 was:
   
   
   • Colorectum: 25.5 to 15.5
   • Leukemia: 10.3 to 7.5
   • Liver and intrahepatic bile duct: 8.0 to 10.1
   • Lung and bronchus: 76.8 to 35.4
   • Pancreas: 12.1 to 12.9
   • Prostate: 30.4 to 18.7
   • Stomach: 6.4 to 3.4
   
   
   The cancer incidence rate shift among males between 2000 and 2021 was:
   
   
   • Colorectum: 62.1 to 38.3
   • Leukemia: 17.6 to 19.3
   • Liver and intrahepatic bile duct: 8.3 to 12.5
   • Lung and bronchus: 78.6 to 46.7
   • Pancreas: 12.9 15.3
   • Prostate: 174.5 to 131.4
   • Stomach: 11.6 to 9.0