Lung Cancer Accounts for Nearly 1 in 5 Cancer Deaths

According to IARC's Global Cancer Observatory, eight types of cancer accounted for more than 60 percent of global cancer deaths in 2022. With more than 1.8 million deaths, lung cancer claimed by far the most lives that year, killing more than twice as many people as cancer of the colorectum, which saw the second highest mortality. Interestingly, the three most deadly types of cancer disproportionately affect men, while breast cancer, ranked fourth, killed 666,000 women in 2022.

With roughly 2.5 million new cases in 2022, lung cancer is the most common type of cancer worldwide, with 1.6 million men and around 900,000 women diagnosed with lung cancer that year. The second most common type of cancer among men was prostate cancer with almost 1.5 million new diagnoses in 2022. Among women, breast cancer was by far the most common diagnosis, with 2.3 million new cases worldwide in 2022.

While lung cancer has long been known to be closely related to tobacco smoking, a recent study found that lung cancer rates among never-smokers have been increasing lately. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), lung cancer in people who never smoked would now be the fifth highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide, when looked at separately. The main driver of this development is thought to be air pollution, which is why lung cancer among never-smokers is most prevalent in East Asia and China in particular. A recent study found that around 200,000 lung cancer cases worldwide were attributable to ambient PM pollution in 2022.