WHO warns global cancer cases could climb to 35 million annually by 2050

The World Health Organization released a new global report warning that cancer diagnoses, which numbered about 20.6 million in 2024, are projected to reach roughly 35 million each year by 2050 – an increase of about 70 percent. The surge is driven primarily by population growth and ageing, with older adults at much higher risk, and is compounded by preventable risk factors such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption, obesity and certain infections.

Cancer is now the second‑leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for more than 26,000 deaths each day. Only 12 countries are on track to reduce premature cancer deaths by a third by 2030, while 48 nations are seeing rising mortality rates. The burden is unevenly distributed: Asia accounts for more than half of global cases, Europe 21 percent and North America 11 percent.

Survival outcomes also vary sharply; the WHO notes five‑year breast‑cancer survival exceeds 85 percent in high‑income countries but is around 42 percent in low‑income settings. The report estimates the cumulative economic cost of cancer could surpass $33 trillion by 2050, comparable to the total U.S. GDP. Up to 40 percent of cancers are potentially preventable, and the WHO director‑general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that “the inequities documented in this report are not inevitable; they are the consequence of choices, and they can be reversed through stronger and unified action.”