GENEVA (Reuters) – Breast cancer has overtaken lung cancer as the most common form of the disease, accounting for nearly 12% of new cases each year worldwide, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
“For the first time, breast cancer is now the most common cancer worldwide,” Andre Ilbawi, a cancer specialist at WHO, told a UN briefing ahead of World Cancer Day on Thursday.
Lung cancer was the most common type for the last two decades, but now ranks second, before colorectal cancer, the third most common, Ilbawi said.
Last year, an estimated 2.3 million new breast cancer cases were diagnosed, representing 11.7% of all cancers, the WHO said in a statement. “In women, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death worldwide,” he said.
Ilbawi noted that obesity in women was a common risk factor for breast cancer, as well as driving overall cancer rates.
As the world’s population grows and life expectancy increases, cancer is expected to become more common, rising to about 30 million new cases per year in 2040 from 19.3 million in 2020, Ilbawi said.
The WHO warns of risk factors, saying that about a third of cancer deaths are due to tobacco use, high body mass index, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of physical activity and alcohol consumption.
The coronavirus pandemic disrupts cancer treatment in about half of the countries surveyed, Ilbawi said, pointing to delays in diagnosis, health workers under extreme stress and research affected.
(Reporting by Emma Thomasson and Stephanie N regardsay; edited by Alexandra Hudson)