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Cancer Prevalence: How Many People Have Cancer?

What is cancer prevalence?

Cancer prevalence is defined as the number of living people who have ever had a cancer diagnosis. It includes people diagnosed with cancer in the past as well those who were recently diagnosed.

Cancer prevalence is determined by how often a cancer occurs (incidence) and by how long people normally live after diagnosis (survival). Prevalence counts are highest for the most common cancers with the longest survival. A common cancer with shorter survival may have a lower prevalence count than a less common cancer with a longer survival.

For example, although lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women, the prevalence count for lung cancer is lower than that for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which is the seventh most common cancer. This is because people survive longer with non-Hodgkin lymphoma than with lung cancer, so there are more people living after a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma than after a diagnosis of lung cancer.

The numbers

The numbers on the chart are prevalence counts from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. These estimates are based on a sampling of the US population.

Numbers may not add up because they have been rounded to the nearest 1,000.

Estimated cancer prevalence in the United States as of January 1, 2009

   

    Males

    Females

    All invasive cancer sites

    12,549,000

    5,809,000

    6,740,000

    Brain and other nervous system

    135,000

    71,000

    65,000

    Breast

    2,762,000

    14,000

    2,747,000

    Cervix

    248,000

    0

    248,000

    Colon & rectum

    1,140,000

    559,000

    581,000

    Endometrial cancer and Uterine sarcoma

    590,000

    0

    590,000

    Esophagus

    32,000

    25,000

    7,000

    Hodgkin disease

    175,000

    90,000

    84,000

    Kidney and renal pelvis

    320,000

    188,000

    132,000

    Larynx

    89,000

    72,000

    18,000

    Leukemias

    272,000

    153,000

    119,000

    Liver and bile duct

    36,000

    25,000

    11,000

    Lung and bronchus

    388,000

    178,000

    209,000

    Melanoma of skin

    876,000

    428,000

    449,000

    Multiple myeloma

    71,000

    38,000

    33,000

    Non-Hodgkin lymphoma

    484,000

    252,000

    232,000

    Oral cavity and pharynx

    264,000

    173,000

    92,000

    Ovary

    183,000

    0

    183,000

    Pancreas

    38,000

    19,000

    20,000

    Prostate

    2,500,000

    2,500,000

    0

    Stomach

    70,000

    40,000

    30,000

    Testis

    211,000

    211,000

    0

    Thyroid

    497,000

    109,000

    388,000

    Urinary bladder

    554,000

    411,000

    143,000

    Childhood cancer

    (age 0 -19 years at diagnosis)

    363,000

    182,000

    181,000

References

Howlader N, Noone AM, Krapcho M, et al (eds). SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2009, National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD, based on November 2011 SEER data submission, posted to the SEER Web site, 2012 accessed at http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2009/ on May 1, 2012.


Last Medical Review: 10/23/2012
Last Revised: 10/23/2012