A major new analysis from the World Health Organization [1] and its International Agency for Research on Cancer concludes that 37.8 percent of all new cancer cases in 2022 could have been avoided.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, reviewed data on 36 cancer types across 185 countries. Researchers identified 30 modifiable risk factors with well-established links to cancer, including tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, infections, high body mass index, insufficient physical activity, air pollution, ultraviolet radiation, and occupational exposures.
Out of 18.7 million new cancer diagnoses worldwide in 2022, an estimated 7.1 million were attributable to these factors. This corresponds to approximately 4.3 million cases among men and 2.7 million among women. Tobacco smoking led the way, linked to 15.1 percent of preventable cases. Infections accounted for 10.2 percent, and alcohol consumption for 3.2 percent. Lung, stomach, and cervical cancers together represented nearly half [2] of all preventable cases.
The proportion of preventable cancers varied by region and sex, ranging from 24.6 percent to 38.2 percent among women and 28.1 percent to 57.2 percent among men.
These numbers mark one of the first broad efforts to estimate preventable incidence rather than deaths alone. Earlier work had put the share of avoidable cancer deaths at around 44 percent.
Global cancer incidence continues to rise in absolute terms. The absolute number of new cases has increased in recent decades largely because populations are larger and older. Age-standardized incidence rates, however, show more stability or modest declines in many high-income settings.
In the United States, the American Cancer Society projected over 2 million new cases [3] for 2025. That compares with roughly 1.66 million estimated new cases in 2015. Overall age-adjusted incidence rates have held steady or declined slightly over the past decade, while death rates fell by an average of 1.7 percent per year from 2013 through 2022.
In Michigan, the age-adjusted incidence rate for all cancers [4] was 441.4 per 100,000 residents from 2017 to 2021, nearly identical to the national rate of 444.4. State mortality rates have declined steadily since the 1990s.
The WHO researchers emphasized that reducing exposure to these risk factors is one of the most direct pathways to reducing the future cancer burden. Measures such as tobacco control, HPV vaccination, limiting alcohol intake, and addressing environmental hazards remain central tools.
The findings arrive ahead of World Cancer Day on February 4 and reinforce long-standing public health guidance on prevention.