New cases, average age, gender: what you need to know on the occasion of World Cancer Day

New cases, average age, gender: what you need to know on the occasion of World Cancer Day


This study, published at the end of 2024, focuses on the previous year, 2023. On the occasion of World Cancer Day, we tell you what to retain on the disease.

433,000 new cases, diagnosed at 69 years on average

The study tells us that in France, more than 433,000 people learned, in 2023, that they suffered from cancer. A figure that doubled in just over 30 years since we identified “only” 216,130 new cases in 1990. Median age of people diagnosed in 2023: 70 years in men, 68 years old in women.

This impressive increase is mainly explained by the increase in the French population between these two dates (58 million inhabitants in 1990, 68 million today), explains the Institute. “The increase and aging of the population explain 78 % of the evolution of the incidence (number of new cases, editor’s note) in humans and 57 % in women. Then come the changes in the risk of cancer which represents 20 % in men and 47 % in women. »»

The number of deaths raised to 162,400 in 2021, the last year on which the study was based.

The writing advises you

Men more than women

Cancer is “the first cause of death in humans, and the second in women” (behind myocardial infarction), according to this data. In 2023, there were more men than women among people newly affected by the disease: 57 % of new cancers concerned men, 43 % of women.

The proportions are almost identical in terms of deaths: 56 % concern men, 44 % of women.

Regarding minors, 12,719 cases were identified in children aged 0 to 14, over the period from 2014 to 2020 and 2,215 among 15-17 year olds. The chances of survival are strong for those under 18: 92 % survival a year after the diagnosis for 0-14 year olds and 94 % for 15-17 year olds; 83 % survival five years after diagnosis for 0-14 year olds, 82 % for 15-17 year olds.

The most frequent: prostate and breast

Prostate cancer is the most frequent male cancer (24 %of cancers) in 2023, in front of lung (14 %) and colon-rectum (11 %) cancer. In women, breast cancer (33 %) is leading in front of colon-rectum (11 %) and lung cancer (10 %).

The Institute against Cancer describes “a rather encouraging situation for men, with a decrease in incidence or stability” since 2010, for different cancers. On the other hand, in women, lung cancers (+ 4.3 % of new cases per year since 2010) and pancreas (+ 2.1 % per year) show a “worrying increase in the incidence rate” s ‘worries study.

Regarding deaths, these are lung cancers in humans (20 500 death in 2021) and breast (12 600 death) in women. Men and women combined, “the annual evolution of the standardized mortality rate shows a global decrease between 2011 and 2021 (-2.1 % in humans and -0.6 % in women) ”.

If this decrease is more marked in humans, it is because it results from earlier diagnostics and significant therapeutic advances among more frequent cancers, explains the Institute.

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Risk factors

“There are many risk factors for the appearance of cancers. They can be internal, linked for example to family or family history, or external, linked to our behavior or to our environment, “writes the institute which also specifies that” almost half of cancers could be avoided ”.

Four main risk factors are identified: tobacco (involved in 19.8 %of so -called avoidable cancers), alcohol (8 %), overweight and obesity (5.4 %), an unbalanced diet (5, 4 %).

Regarding screening, the study also notes that 17.2 million French people were eligible for cervical cancer screening in 2023 but that only 59.7 % of them participated in screening campaigns during the last periods concerned by the study. These percentages are even lower for breast cancers (10.8 million eligible women, 46.5 % participation) and the colon-rectum (17.9 million eligible people, 34.2 % participation).

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