World Cancer Day is observed annually on February 4 to raise awareness about cancer, promote prevention, early detection and treatment and to encourage global action against the disease. Established in 2000 and led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the day serves as a unified initiative to reduce the global impact of cancer.
Despite steady progress in cancer prevention and treatment, the global cancer burden keeps growing as the number of new cases annually is expected to grow by 20 percent between 2022 and 2030 and by more than 75 percent between 2022 and 2050. As our chart, based on data from the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), shows, the IARC recognized 10.1 million new cancer cases in 2000, 20.0 million new cases in 2018 and is expecting that number to reach 35 million by 2050. According to the IARC's latest World Cancer Report, cancer is the first or second leading cause of premature mortality (i.e. deaths at ages 30-69 years) in 134 of 183 countries worldwide, killing almost 10 million people in 2022 alone.
Further highlighting the relevance of cancer as an issue concerning all of us, the IARC estimates that 1 in 5 people develop cancer during their lifetime and approximately 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from the disease. Aside from the millions of lives lost prematurely each year, cancer also bears a huge economic burden. According to a recent study, the global economic cost of the 29 most prevalent cancer types is estimated to amount to more than $25 trillion between 2020 and 2050.