Juliette Gagliardi
Junior Researcher
Cancer in Italy: specifics - Statistics & Facts
The frequency and the type of cancer diagnosed vary by the sex and age of individuals. Generally speaking, the number of new cases of cancer increases with age, but sex plays an important role in terms of incidence, prevalence, and mortality, especially for certain types of cancers. Lung cancer is the deadliest type of cancer worldwide as well as in Italy, where around 35,700 thousand people died from lung cancer in 2022, with the number of men dying from lung cancer almost double that of women. Colorectal cancer is the cancer with the second highest incidence among women, after breast cancer, and the third among men. In 2023, new diagnoses of colorectal cancer amounted to about 50,500, while in 2022 over 24,000 people died from this type of cancer.
Common types of cancer among men
In Italy, the type of cancer with the highest number of new diagnoses for men is prostate cancer, followed by lung and colorectal cancer. In 2023, over 41,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer across the country. Testicular and penile cancers are also specific to men. Testicular cancer is more common than penile cancer, in terms of both prevalence and incidence.Common types of cancer among women
Breast cancer is the type of cancer with the highest number of new cases for women, followed by colorectal and lung cancer. In 2023, almost 56,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in Italy. Cervical cancer is one type of cancer solely affecting women, for which the incidence is the highest for women between 50 and 54 years. Human papillomavirus infection is a relevant risk factor for this type of cancer, with the highest incidence rate of all HPV-related cancers in Italy.
