The burden of cancer cases in 2022 rose by 20 million new cases globally, according to the latest estimates of the global burden of cancer released on February 1, 2024 by the World Health Organization (WHO). India reported 1,413,316 new cases, with a higher proportion of female patients — 691,178 men and 722,138 women. Breast cancer had the highest proportion in the country, with 192,020 new cases, accounting for 13.6 per cent of all patients and over 26 per cent in women. The approximation reflected the global estimates that ranked female breast cancer as the second highest reported, with 2.3 million cases worldwide. In India, breast cancer was followed by lip and oral cavity (143,759 new cases, 10.2 per cent), cervix and uterine (127,526 new cases, 9 per cent), lung (81,748, 5.8 per cent), and oesophagal cancers (70,637 new cases, 5.5 per cent). The top five cancers were ranked by deaths in 2022 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), WHO’s cancer agency. “Women in lower Human Development Index (HDI) countries are 50 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than women in high HDI countries, yet they are at a much higher risk of dying of the disease due to late diagnosis and inadequate access to quality treatment,” Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram, deputy head of the cancer surveillance branch at IARC, said in a press statement. Globally, lung cancer was the most commonly occurring, with 2.5 million new cases or 12.4 per cent, the WHO said. Female breast cancer ranked second (2.3 million cases, 11.6 per cent), followed by colorectal cancer (1.9 million cases, 9.6 per cent), prostate cancer (1.5 million cases, 7.3 per cent) and stomach cancer (970,000 cases, 4.9 per cent). Further, about 9.7 million global deaths due to cancer were reported in 2022, with 916,827 cancer deaths reported in India alone in 2022. The estimates included the deaths of 470,055 men and 446,772 women in the country.