Cancer in the United States

The shares are the National Cancer Institute's, worked out from the cancer records of areas that hold about 45.9% of the people of the United States. That is why the card is marked Estimated.

The country's own count for 2023, from every state: 254,754 new cancers at ages 60 to 64, 318,874 at 65 to 69 and 304,016 at 70 to 74.

There are fewer people at the oldest ages, so fewer cancers are found there, but each person's chance is higher: the count is highest, for the number of people of that age, at ages 80 to 84 (2,369.3 new cancers for every 100,000 people).

Sources: National Cancer Institute, Cancer Stat Facts: Cancer of Any Site, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, its overview of the programme, read 11 October 2026. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, data tables for 1999 to 2023 (deaths to 2024), 2026, read 11 October 2026.

Children and teenagers are counted in the groups made for them, the International Classification of Childhood Cancer, which the agency uses for everyone under 20: twelve groups, by the kind of cell more than by the part of the body. Its table gives two age bands, under 15 and under 20; Dooram took the first from the second for ages 15 to 19. The groups are not split into girls and boys.

For the number of children, 154.7 cancers were found for every million children under 15 in 2023, and 176.4 for every million under 20; leukaemias alone, 51.3 for every million under 15. The agency gives children's rates for every million, not every 100,000.

From 20, the agency counts new cancers in five-year age bands, by the part of the body. Dooram added them into four wider bands (20 to 39, 40 to 59, 60 to 79, and 80 and over) and ranked, in each, the 25 kinds the agency's table counts by age. It holds back men's breast cancer at every age, so the breast bar in the first picture is women's.

The agency's own names for the children's groups: leukemias, myeloproliferative and myelodysplastic diseases; CNS and miscellaneous intracranial and intraspinal neoplasms (brain and spinal cord); lymphomas and reticuloendothelial neoplasms; neuroblastoma and other peripheral nervous cell tumors; soft tissue and other extraosseous sarcomas; germ cell tumors, trophoblastic tumors and neoplasms of gonads; other malignant epithelial neoplasms and malignant melanomas (carcinomas, among them thyroid cancer, and melanomas). For adults: melanomas of the skin; colon and rectum; lung and bronchus; urinary bladder; corpus and uterus (womb); kidney and renal pelvis; oral cavity and pharynx (mouth and throat).

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, data tables for 1999 to 2023 (deaths to 2024), 2026, read 11 October 2026. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, technical note on rates, read 11 October 2026.

• New cancers, under 1520239,216
• Deaths, under 1520231,166
• New cancers, under 20202314,565
• Deaths, under 2020231,829

A second table in the same set of figures gives 14,564 new cancers under 20, one fewer. Dooram shows the first and says so.

The National Cancer Institute estimated, for 2024, 14,910 new cancers and 1,590 deaths under 20. Those are estimates, not counts.

Of 49,727 cancers found in children under 15 in the five years 2019 to 2023, the three largest groups. Leukaemias are cancers of the blood. Lymphomas, which start in the body's defence system, are counted as a group of their own.

For the number of children, that is 154.7 new cancers for every million children under 15 in 2023. The agency gives children's rates for every million, not every 100,000 as for adults.

Survival, estimated by the National Cancer Institute for 2013 to 2019: 87.8 in every 100 children aged 1 to 4 were alive five years after their cancer was found, and 83.2 in every 100 babies under 1.

The agency's own names for the three groups are leukemias, myeloproliferative and myelodysplastic diseases; CNS and miscellaneous intracranial and intraspinal neoplasms; and lymphomas and reticuloendothelial neoplasms.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, data tables for 1999 to 2023 (deaths to 2024), 2026, read 11 October 2026. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, technical note on rates, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, Cancer in Children and Adolescents, read 11 October 2026.

Deaths in 2024, women and men together

• Lung128,663
• Colon and rectum54,468
• Pancreas51,326

Women: lung 61,626, breast 43,402, colon and rectum 25,040, pancreas 24,721.

Men: lung 67,037, prostate 34,815, colon and rectum 29,428, pancreas 26,605.

More deaths is not a worsening on its own. The number rises as the country grows and its people grow older. The rate allows for both, and it fell from 146.0 for every 100,000 people in 2019 to 139.2 in 2024.

The National Cancer Institute says of the death rate:

“falling on average 1.5% each year over 2015–2024”

Cancer is the second biggest cause of death in the United States, after heart disease. Two offices of the same agency print totals five apart for 2024 (619,871 and 619,876). Dooram shows both.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, data tables for 1999 to 2023 (deaths to 2024), 2026, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, Cancer Stat Facts: Cancer of Any Site, read 11 October 2026. National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Leading Causes of Death, figures for 2024, read 11 October 2026.

Not every state's records are followed for survival. Today's figure, 70.5, comes from a group of areas the National Cancer Institute names “SEER 21 (Excluding IL)”, for cancers found in 2016 to 2022; it gives the 21 areas as 45.8% of the people of the United States.

The figures since 1975 come from a smaller group, the eight areas with the oldest records, 8.3% of the people. In those eight, 49.85 in every 100 people whose cancer was found in 1975 were alive five years later, and 73.58 in every 100 of those found in 2018, the newest year there is. The two groups are different places, so 70.5 is not the next point on that line.

The measure compares people with cancer with people of the same age without it. It describes a large group and is not any one person's chance.

Sources: National Cancer Institute, Cancer Stat Facts: Cancer of Any Site, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, its table of the people its cancer records cover, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, Cancer Stat Facts: Common Cancer Sites, read 11 October 2026.

How far a cancer has spread when it is found changes what can be done. Under each bar is how many in every 100 people found at that point were alive five years later.

The institute's own words for the three are localized, regional and distant. The figures come from its own areas, which hold about 45.9% of the people of the United States; the breast cancer shares add up to 99 because it prints whole numbers.

A second measure from the same institute: 44.6 in every 100,000 women were found with breast cancer at a late stage in 2022.

Sources: National Cancer Institute, Cancer Stat Facts: Lung and Bronchus Cancer, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, Cancer Stat Facts: Female Breast Cancer, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, its overview of the programme, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, Cancer Trends Progress Report, read 11 October 2026.

A count follows the number of people: California has the most people of any state, and Texas the second most.

• New cancers found, 2023Kentucky 30,797; Utah 14,314
• For every 100,000 people, 2023Kentucky 530.5; Utah 442.8
• Cancer deaths, 2024Kentucky 10,528; Utah 3,732

New cancers for every 100,000 people, 2019 to 2023

• Counties in and around cities450.9
• Counties in the countryside466.6

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Highlights from 2026 U.S. Cancer Statistics, read 11 October 2026.

The 50 states and the District of Columbia, 51 areas in all. Rates are counted as if every state had the same mix of ages (adjusted for age), so a state with more old people is not ranked higher for that alone. Each is for one year, the newest the agency gives: 2023 for new cancers, 2024 for deaths.

Over the five years 2019 to 2023 together, Kentucky also has the highest rate of new cancers (524.6), against 453.4 for the whole country and 428.7 in Utah, and New Mexico the lowest (378.5). Over 2020 to 2024, Kentucky has the highest death rate (179.4), against 143.3 for the whole country and 120.6 in Utah, the second lowest, and Hawaii the lowest (119.7).

A state's rate is not any one person's risk. Dooram found no authority saying why one state is higher than another, so it gives no reason.

Kentucky's rate of new lung cancer (83.6) is more than three times Utah's (24.4).

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, data tables for 1999 to 2023 (deaths to 2024), 2026, read 11 October 2026.

The groups and their names are the agency's own. “Non-Hispanic” means that five of the six groups leave out Hispanic people, who are a group of their own. Rates are counted as if every group had the same mix of ages (adjusted for age), so they can be compared.

The agency's figures print one name cut short (“Native Hawaiinn or other Pacific Islander, Non- Hispani”); it is written out here. That group's rate rests on 4,258 deaths in five years, 192 of them from prostate cancer, so it is less steady than the others.

The National Cancer Institute says Black men are:

“more than twice as likely as White men to die of prostate cancer”

A difference between groups is not explained by the group. Dooram gives the rates and no reason.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, data tables for 1999 to 2023 (deaths to 2024), 2026, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, Cancer Disparities, read 11 October 2026.

Women aged 40 and over who said they had a mammogram in the past two years, in every 100, 2024. The middle of the states and territories is 72.3.

• Rhode Island80.69
• Connecticut80.68
• Massachusetts78.56
• Kentucky71.04
• Utah67.69

By the income of the home, in the two states:

• KentuckyUnder $15,000 a year, then $200,000 or more53.87 and 87.05
• UtahUnder $15,000 a year, then $200,000 or more49.3 and 77.97

Kentucky's figure for the richest homes rests on the answers of about 72 women.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Prevalence Data, 2024, read 11 October 2026.

• Certified sites9,128
• Machines27,793
• Mammograms a year45,025,781

Counted by the medicines and devices regulator, as of 1 September 2026.

Source: Food and Drug Administration, MQSA National Statistics, as of 1 September 2026, read 11 October 2026.

The HPV vaccine protects against the virus that causes almost all cancer of the cervix. The vaccine figures come from a survey of families, checked against the records of the clinic that gave the vaccine. For the whole country the survey gives 63.4 in every 100, somewhere between 62.2 and 64.7, from 18,692 teenagers. Mississippi is the lowest state; one territory is lower (the U.S. Virgin Islands, 30.5).

The screening figures are what people told a survey. The National Cancer Institute warns of each:

“There are important limitations to this method”

Lung screening has no newer figure in that survey. The institute says:

“the most recent estimate available through the NHIS is 2015, which is nearly a decade ago”

Two surveys give different figures for mammograms (79.8 and 72.3) because they ask women of different ages in different years. A different age group again: 57.3 in every 100 teenagers aged 13 to 15 had the HPV vaccine in 2023.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vaccination Coverage among Adolescents (13-17 Years), National Immunization Survey-Teen, 2025, read 11 October 2026. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cervical Cancer Risk Factors, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, Cancer Trends Progress Report, read 11 October 2026.

The title is given for research. Many more hospitals treat cancer, and Dooram does not tell anyone where to go for care. The institute says:

“approximately 400,000 patients receive their cancer diagnoses at an NCI-Designated Cancer Center”

That is each year.

Dooram looked for an official list of every hospital that treats cancer and found none. Medicare lists 5,419 hospitals and does not say which treat cancer.

Sources: National Cancer Institute, NCI-Designated Cancer Centers, read 11 October 2026. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Hospital General Information, read 11 October 2026.

• KentuckyRadiation treatment doctors who billed Medicare, 202468
• Utah38

Medicare is the national health insurance for people aged 65 and over. Each bar is the doctors of one kind who billed Medicare in 2024. It is not every cancer doctor: one who bills Medicare for nothing is not in it.

The kinds are Medicare's own, given in small type.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners, by Provider, 2024, read 11 October 2026.

• United StatesHospices that Medicare has certified, August 20266,669
• California1,913
• Utah82
• Kentucky23

People who used hospice in 2024: Kentucky 22,896, 29 in every 100 for cancers and blood diseases; Utah 16,377, 17 in every 100.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Hospice, General Information, August 2026, read 11 October 2026.

In every 100 patients who died of cancer, July 2024 to June 2025

• Never admitted to hospice36.5
• In intensive care in the last 30 days of life34.4
• In hospice for under 3 days25.8
• Given chemotherapy in the last 14 days of life4.7

These are 11 named cancer hospitals in 8 states. They are not the country.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Palliative Care, PPS-Exempt Cancer Hospital, July 2024 to June 2025, read 11 October 2026.

Hospice is care for comfort near the end of life, at home or in a hospice. Medicare is the national health insurance for people aged 65 and over. People who used hospice outside Medicare are not counted. The year is Medicare's budget year.

Medicare puts cancers and diseases of the blood in one group, so the figure is not cancer alone. The three largest groups are drawn; the others are not.

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Post-Acute Care Utilization, Hospice by Geography and Provider, 2024, read 11 October 2026.

The medicines regulator posts a dated notice each time it approves a cancer medicine for a use. Dooram counted the notices; the regulator prints no total. A notice is one approval for one use, so this is not a count of new medicines.

2026 runs to the newest notice, dated 8 October 2026. The list goes back to January 2023.

Approved does not mean a hospital has the medicine, or that anyone pays for it.

Source: Food and Drug Administration, Oncology (Cancer)/Hematologic Malignancies Approval Notifications, read 11 October 2026.

The two cost figures are from two official bodies, for different years, worked out in different ways. Neither is wrong; Dooram shows both.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives the first, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality:

“for 2023, the direct medical costs for cancer, including all health care expenditures, were $198 billion”

The National Cancer Institute put the cost at $190.2 billion in 2015 and projected $208.9 billion for 2020, of which breast cancer was $29.8 billion and cancer of the colon and rectum $24.3 billion.

The insurance figure is for everyone in the country, not for people with cancer. The Census Bureau says:

“In 2025, 26.7 million people (7.9 percent) were uninsured for the entire year”

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Cancer Statistics, technical notes, read 11 October 2026. National Cancer Institute, Cancer Trends Progress Report: Financial Burden of Cancer Care, read 11 October 2026. Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2025, 2026, read 11 October 2026.