Cancer Incidence Rate for Women Under 50 Rises Above Men's 

Cancer incidence continues to rise for many common cancers—especially for women. The incidence rate for women younger than 50 has increased from 51% higher than men in 2002 to 82% higher in 2021 (the most current year with data).

Cancer mortality, however, continues to decline. Big wins in smoking cessation, early cancer detection, and treatment advancements have reduced the cancer mortality rate in the United States by 34% over the last 30 years, sparing about 4.5 million lives that could have been lost to cancer if the death rate had remained at its peak. This progress is mostly because of steady declines in the four most common types of cancer—breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate.

Despite the decreases in death rates, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the US, and the leading cause of death in people younger than 85.

Alarming racial disparities in cancer mortality also persist. American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) people are 2 to 3 times more likely to die from cancers of the cervix, kidney, liver, and stomach compared to White people. Black people are 2 times more likely to die from prostate, stomach, and uterine cancer than White people.

These statistics and the estimated numbers of new cancer cases and deaths for this year are from “Cancer Statistics, 2025,” published in the American Cancer Society’s flagship journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, in its consumer-friendly companion report, Cancer Facts & Figures 2025, and on the interactive website, the Cancer Statistics Center. These publications are the most widely cited source of cancer statistics in the world. Authors of the study include ACS researchers: Rebecca Siegel, MPH, Tyler B. Kratzer, MPH,  Angela Giaquinto, MSPH, Hyuna Sung, PhD, and Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PhD. 

In recent years, the cancer burden has increased in women younger than 65.

Cancer incidence for people ages 50 to 64. Since at least 1998, men ages 50 to 64 were more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than women in that age group. (See graphic above on right.)

The largest difference in incidence rate between the sexes during the study period was 21% in 2007. But beginning in 2011, the cancer incidence rate in females slowly increased until the rate for women caught up with those for men in 2021. Additionally, lung cancer among women surpassed that of men for the first time in 2021 for adults younger than age 65.

Cancer incidence for people ages 0 to 49. Females ages 0 to 49 have long had a higher incidence rate than males, mainly because of breast cancer.

Incidence rates for men younger than 50 was generally stable during 1998 to 2021. While incidence rates for women increased, widening the difference for the risk of developing cancer between males and females.

By 2021, the cancer incidence rate for females was 82% higher than for males. Those increases were primarily due to increasing trends of breast cancer and thyroid cancer in women, although thyroid cancer has been decreasing in recent years.

Disparities in cancer incidence and death rates between racial groups have persisted.

Death rates better demonstrate the progress against cancer than incidence rates because they are less affected by the changes that occur in the practice of detecting cancer.

“Although race and ethnicity are social constructs that aggregate heterogenous population groups, they are useful for examining the influence of discrimination and inequality in health disparities,” the writers state in Cancer Statistics, 2025.

Disparities in cancer incidence and death rates are often due to discriminatory practices that limit upward mobility for certain races. “Persistent poverty ranks among the leading causes of death alongside smoking,” the authors write.

In 2022, the percentage of people living below the federal poverty level ($27,750 for a family of 4) by race was:

• 25% of American Indian/Alaskan Native (AIAN) people
• 17% of Black and Hispanic people
• 9% of White and Asian people

Noteworthy facts for overall incidence and death rates by race:

• Highest cancer incidence and mortality  rates for men and women combined: AIAN people
• Highest cancer incidence and mortality rates for women: AIAN women
• Highest cancer incidence and mortality rates for men: Black men
• Only group with a lower cancer incidence rate for men instead of women: AAPI people

 Differences in selected cancer site death rates by race: 

• Highest mortality for breast cancer: Black women
• Highest mortality for uterine (endometrial) cancer: Black women are 2 to 3 times more likely to die from endometrial cancer than any other racial group.
• Highest mortality for cervical cancer: AIAN women
• Highest mortality for colorectal cancer: AIAN people
• Highest mortality for lung cancer: AIAN people
• Highest mortality for prostate cancer: Black men are 2 to 4 times more likely to die from prostate cancer than other racial groups.

Increased investments to expand access to high-quality care, with a special focus on AIAN and Black communities, could accelerate progress against cancer and decrease disparities in cancer outcomes based on race.

The 5-year relative survival rate for most cancers have improved in the last 40 years. The only exceptions are uterine (endometrial) cancer and cervical cancer—whose survival rates have declined.

Earlier diagnosis increases the likelihood of successful treatment. Cancers with a low relative survival rate have a less favorable prognosis.

The current highest 5-year survival rates are for cancers of the thyroid (98%), prostate (97%), testis (95%), and melanoma (94%). Improvements in survival are largely due to earlier diagnosis from cancer screening and incidental detection from imaging for cancers in the breast, prostate, thyroid, and kidney.

Advancements in treatment have also greatly improved the prognosis of some cancers. Most notably, the survival rate for certain blood cancers improved from 22% in the mid-1970s to 70%  today. Newer treatments have also greatly improved the prognosis for metastatic melanoma.

The table below shows that liver cancer has had the largest increase in relative survival—from 3% to 22%. However, it is still one of the cancers with the lowest survival rates, along with cancers in the lung with a 27% relative survival rate, esophagus with 22%, and pancreas with 13%.

Pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of death from cancer. The death rate for pancreatic cancer has increased in part because of increased incidence, which is likely due to changing trends in risk factors, such as more people having obesity in the US--a risk factor for pancreatic cancer.

Despite national legislation to focus attention on pancreatic cancer, treatment advances are lacking. Since 2000, for metastatic pancreatic cancer there have been:

• 481 phase 1 clinical trials
• 85 phase 3 clinical trials
• 5 new drug approvals

Still, the median survival for the disease is less than 1 year. Since the 1970s, the 5-year relative survival rate has improved slightly, however, the survival for the most common type of pancreatic cancer – pancreatic adenocarcinoma – is just 8%.

The authors explain that: “The appearance of a three-fold increase in the 5-year survival rate, from 4% in the mid-1990s to 13% in 2014-2020, is partly an artifact of a burgeoning number of incidentally detected, well differentiated neuroendocrine tumors.”   

Uterine cancer (also known as endometrial cancer). Cancer in the uterus is the only type of cancer that has a lower chance of survival than it did 40 years ago. It is the fifth most common cause of death from cancer in women. Relative 5-year survival rates are worse for Black women (63%) than for White women (84%), making it one of the largest racial disparities in cancer.

There have only been modest advances in treatment and there are no recommended screening tests to detect this disease early. About 70% of cases are found at an early stage though because a common early symptom is irregular or postmenopausal vaginal bleeding.

Lack of progress is at least in part because of persistent underfunding for research by the National Cancer Institute. Government research funding for uterine cancer ($15 million) was only one-sixth the amount allocated for cervical cancer ($86 million), even though it killed 3 times more women in 2022.

Cervical cancer. Widespread screening has reduced the incidence and the death rate for cervical cancer by more than half. But the decreases have been stabilizing for about the last 20 years. The slowdown in progress is partly due to an increased proportion of a specific type of cervical cancer, adenocarcinoma. The screening test for cervical cancer is much more likely to find squamous cell cervical cancer.

About These Reports

The most recent year with available incidence and mortality data lags 2 to 4 years behind the current year because of the time it takes to collect data, compile it, verify its quality, and share the analysis. For both the CA report and Cancer Facts & Figures 2025, ACS researchers compiled the most recent data on population-based cancer occurrence and outcomes using incidence data collected by central cancer registries (through 2021) and mortality data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (through 2022).

The most recent statistics don’t include basal or squamous cell skin cancers because US cancer registries aren’t required to collect information on these types of cancers.

Researchers have not yet analyzed the potentially myriad ways in which the pandemic affected these cancer statistics. When data is available, researchers expect that the public health crisis of COVID-19 will be found to have delayed diagnoses and led to worse outcomes and more deaths. But it will take many years to parse out those effects.