Cancer Prevalence: How Many People Have Cancer?
What is cancer prevalence?
Cancer prevalence is defined as the total number of people living with cancer at any point in time. It includes people diagnosed with cancer in the past as well those who were recently diagnosed.
Cancer prevalence is affected both by the incidence of a cancer and by how long people normally live with the disease, but it is not a measure of cancer occurrence. This number is the cancer incidence, which is the number of people newly diagnosed with cancer in a given time period (usually a year).
For example, lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women, but lung cancer prevalence is not as high as that of some less common cancers. This is because people with lung cancer tend not to live as long after diagnosis.
The numbers
The numbers on the chart come from the US National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database for the year 2008, the most recent year for which incidence data are available. 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, 2008
Males |
Females | ||
All invasive cancer sites |
11,958,000 |
5,506,000 |
6,452,000 |
Brain and other nervous system |
129,000 |
68,000 |
61,000 |
Breast |
2,646,000 |
14,000 |
2,632,000 |
Cervix |
244,000 |
0 |
244,000 |
Colon & rectum |
1,110,000 |
542,000 |
568,000 |
Endometrial cancer and Uterine sarcoma |
573,000 |
0 |
573,000 |
Esophagus |
30,000 |
23,000 |
7,000 |
Hodgkin disease |
167,000 |
86,000 |
81,000 |
Kidney and renal pelvis |
296,000 |
174,000 |
122,000 |
Larynx |
89,000 |
71,000 |
18,000 |
Leukemias |
254,000 |
143,000 |
111,000 |
Liver and bile duct |
32,000 |
22,000 |
10,000 |
Lung and bronchus |
373,000 |
173,000 |
200,000 |
Melanoma of skin |
823,000 |
401,000 |
422,000 |
Multiple myeloma |
64,000 |
35,000 |
29,000 |
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma |
454,000 |
235,000 |
219,000 |
Oral cavity and pharynx |
253,000 |
164,000 |
89,000 |
Ovary |
178,000 |
0 |
178,000 |
Pancreas |
35,000 |
17,000 |
18,000 |
Prostate |
2,355,000 |
2,355,000 |
0 |
Stomach |
66,000 |
38,000 |
28,000 |
Testis |
201,000 |
201,000 |
0 |
Thyroid |
458,000 |
101,000 |
357,000 |
Urinary bladder |
537,000 |
398,000 |
139,000 |
Childhood cancer (age 0 -19 years) |
353,000 |
177,000 |
176,000 |
References
Howlader N, Noone AM, Krapcho M, et al (eds). SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2008, National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD, based on November 2010 SEER data submission, posted to the SEER Web site, 2011 accessed at http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2008/ on October 14, 2011.
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