James and Rachael, the couple who own Better Health For Everyone

Owned by James & Rachael — a couple who care about all people getting the right type of healthcare. Where people live, how much they earn and how quickly they are diagnosed still shape what a cancer diagnosis means. None of that is inevitable — it is a gap in access and care, and the evidence here shows where it can change.

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Better Health For Everyone · Research library

Cancer: A Global Research Library

Open, fully-sourced research on cancer around the world: how common it is, prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, inequalities and life after cancer. Free to cite.

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Link to, cite and reuse anything here, including the charts. Every figure is sourced. Need the numbers as a spreadsheet? Get in touch.

Where you live, how much you earn and how quickly you are diagnosed still shape what a cancer diagnosis means, far more than they should. Survival has risen in most countries, but the gains are uneven: late diagnosis, long waits, unequal access to treatment and too little support after treatment still decide too many outcomes. None of that is inevitable, and the evidence shows where it can change.

This library brings together what published research, cancer registries and national statistics have found, from many countries, in one place. Every figure is checked against its original source and cited, so charities, support groups, clinicians and journalists can use it with confidence.

3 studies

How common cancer is

How common cancer is More Cancer Diagnoses, Mostly Because We Live Longer: Incidence Trends Explained Global cancer cases rose 28% in 2006-16, driven by population ageing and growth while age-specific rates barely moved. What is rising, what is falling, and what projections assume. With sources. Read the study How common cancer is Cancer Under 50 Is Rising, Bowel Cancer Most Clearly, but It Remains Uncommon Bowel cancer at ages 25 to 49 is rising in 27 of 50 countries studied, yet in the US it affects about 13 in 100,000 adults aged 20-49 a year. With sources. Read the study How common cancer is Same Cancer, Different Odds: How Cancer Survival Varies Between Countries Five-year survival for childhood leukaemia ranged from 49.8% in Ecuador to 95.2% in Finland. What CONCORD and ICBP show about survival gaps, stage and access. With sources. Read the study
3 studies

Risk & prevention

Risk & prevention Four in Ten Cancers Are Linked to Changeable Risks: What That Really Means UK, US and global studies link 32-40% of new cancers to modifiable factors, led by tobacco. What these modelled estimates mean, and what policy can change. With sources. Read the study Risk & prevention Where Girls Were Vaccinated Young, Cervical Cancer Is Falling Steeply Cervical cancer rates were 87% lower in women in England offered HPV vaccine at 12-13, yet only 33% of girls worldwide had a first dose in 2025. With sources. Read the study Risk & prevention Inherited Cancer Risk: Common Enough to Plan For, Mostly Untested About 8% of people with cancer in one large study carried a harmful inherited variant, yet most carriers have never been tested. BRCA, Lynch syndrome and testing access. With sources. Read the study
4 studies

Screening & early diagnosis

Screening & early diagnosis Who Gets Screened for Cancer? Uptake Gaps Around the World Two in three women aged 30-49 worldwide had never had cervical screening in 2019, and poorer areas are screened least even in mature programmes. With sources. Read the study Screening & early diagnosis Found Late: Stage at Diagnosis, Emergency Diagnosis and Why Timing Matters Half of US lung and pancreatic cancers are found after spreading; 24-43% of eight cancers are diagnosed as emergencies in six countries. With sources. Read the study Screening & early diagnosis From First Symptom to Diagnosis: How Long It Takes and Who Waits Longest Median time from first bowel cancer symptom to treatment ranged from 77 to 168 days across 10 health systems; in England 22% spoke to their GP practice 3+ times before diagnosis. With sources. Read the study Screening & early diagnosis Lung Cancer Screening: What the Trials Show, and Who Is Being Reached CT screening cut lung cancer deaths by 24% in men in the NELSON trial, but false alarms, overdiagnosis and unequal uptake matter too. With sources. Read the study
10 studies

Specific cancers

Specific cancers Breast Cancer Worldwide: Where You Live Shapes Who Survives Five-year breast cancer survival ranges from 41.9% in low-income countries to 87.3% in high-income ones. Global data on incidence, stage, screening, men and metastatic disease. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Prostate Cancer: Where It Is Found, Where Men Die, and Who Is Most at Risk An estimated 1.5 million men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2024; Black men in the US die of it at twice the rate of White men. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Lung Cancer: The Leading Cause of Cancer Death, Never-Smokers and Stigma Lung cancer caused an estimated 1.9 million deaths in 2024, more than any other cancer. Never-smoker share, late diagnosis, survival and stigma. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Bowel Cancer Worldwide: Survival Hinges on Stage and Where You Live Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death. In England, five-year net survival is 91.6% at stage 1 and 11.0% at stage 4. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Pancreatic Cancer: Late Diagnosis, Slow Survival Gains and the Funding Gap Pancreatic cancer caused an estimated 490,786 deaths worldwide in 2024, against 531,318 diagnoses. Late diagnosis, survival, care gaps and research funding. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Blood Cancers: Survival Up for Every Major Type, but Diagnosis Often Comes Late Leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma: 1.34 million new cases worldwide in 2024, survival gains by type, and myeloma's 163-day median wait for diagnosis. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Brain Tumours: Rare Overall, a Leading Cause of Cancer Death in the Young Malignant brain tumours are 2.4% of adult cancer deaths but 17% in under-20s worldwide; US five-year relative survival is 34.8%. Incidence, survival, funding and gaps. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Skin Cancer and Melanoma: Forty-Fold Gaps, and the Commonest Types Go Uncounted Melanoma: 337,969 new cases and 58,398 deaths worldwide in 2024. Non-melanoma skin cancers cause about as many deaths but go largely uncounted. UV, sunbeds, survival. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Ovarian Cancer Still Found Late, Womb Cancer Rising: Gynaecological Cancer Data Ovarian cancer caused an estimated 203,850 deaths worldwide in 2024 from 330,731 diagnoses, and womb cancer is rising in many countries. With sources. Read the study Specific cancers Children's and Young People's Cancer: Where a Child Lives Shapes Their Chances Five-year survival for childhood cancer is above 80% in most high-income countries but 50-60% in lower-middle-income ones, and many children are never diagnosed. With sources. Read the study
6 studies

Treatment & access

Treatment & access Waiting for Cancer Treatment: Targets, Performance and What Delay Costs In August 2026, 71.9% of people in England started their first cancer treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, against an 85% standard; no UK nation met its 62-day target. With sources. Read the study Treatment & access Poorer Places, Worse Odds: Cancer Gaps by Deprivation and Education Around 33,800 UK cancer cases a year are linked with deprivation, and survival is lower in poorer areas. The evidence across the UK, Europe and the US. With sources. Read the study Treatment & access Ethnicity and Cancer: Unequal Diagnosis, Care and Survival In the US, Black women's breast cancer death rate is 38% higher than White women's despite lower incidence. Ethnic gaps in stage, care and survival across four countries. With sources. Read the study Treatment & access Access to Cancer Medicines: How Waits and Gaps Differ Around the World New cancer medicines took 655 days on average to become available across the EU; in poorer countries even essential chemotherapy is often missing or paid for in full. With sources. Read the study Treatment & access Who Gets Into Cancer Trials: Participation, Who Is Missing and the Global Gap About 8% of people with cancer assessed for trials at US centres enrol; for 56% no trial was open. Older, Black and Hispanic people and poorer countries are under-represented. With sources. Read the study Treatment & access Global Cancer Gap: Radiotherapy Capacity for 8% of Need in Low-Income Countries Radiotherapy machines in low-income countries could treat an estimated 7.9% of people needing it in 2022. Pathology, workforce and palliative care gaps, and what helps. With sources. Read the study
8 studies

Living with and after cancer

Living with and after cancer Older People With Cancer: Nearly Half of Cases, Too Little Tailored Care In 2012, 47.5% of new cancers worldwide were in people aged 65 and over. Treatment falls with age, yet trials show geriatric assessment cuts serious side-effects. With sources. Read the study Living with and after cancer Life After Cancer: Millions Living With Effects That Outlast Treatment About 18.6 million people in the US and 23.7 million in Europe live after a cancer diagnosis; many have lasting effects and unmet needs. With sources. Read the study Living with and after cancer Mental Health With and After Cancer: Common, Often Missed, Often Untreated About 1 in 6 adults with cancer meet interview criteria for depression; suicide risk is raised most in the first year after diagnosis. With sources. Read the study Living with and after cancer Caring Through Cancer: Carers' Hours, Health and the Gaps in Support At least 2.8 million US adults cared for someone with cancer in the year before a 2015 survey, averaging 32.9 hours a week; pooled studies find depression in 25-42% of carers. With sources. Read the study Living with and after cancer Cancer, Work and Money: How a Diagnosis Hits Jobs and Household Finances Across 36 studies, a third of people after cancer were out of work; in Southeast Asia 48% of those followed up faced financial catastrophe within a year. With sources. Read the study Living with and after cancer Pain Relief and Palliative Care at the End of Life: A Worldwide Gap Only about 14% of the world's need for palliative care is met (WHO; Global Atlas 2026); most of the world shares 13% of medical morphine. Place of death and access compared. With sources. Read the study Living with and after cancer Where People With Cancer Die, and Where They Would Choose To Most people say they would prefer to die at home, yet 31% of cancer deaths in 12 Latin American countries and 23.5% in Sweden were at home. What helps. With sources. Read the study Living with and after cancer Late and Unequal: Who Receives Palliative Care for Cancer, and When Across 64 UK hospices, the median time from referral to death was 48 days. Who gets palliative care, when, and what early-care trials found. With sources. Read the study
4 studies

Understanding the evidence

Understanding the evidence Cancer Worldwide: 20.6 Million Diagnoses a Year and Very Unequal Odds An estimated 20.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2024 and 9.8 million died. How cases, deaths and survival differ by country, and what is preventable. With sources. Read the study Understanding the evidence Cancer Misinformation Online and the Evidence on Choosing Alternative Medicine About a third of popular cancer articles on social media held misinformation; choosing alternative medicine alone was linked to 2.5 times the hazard of death. With sources. Read the study Understanding the evidence Phones, Deodorants, Sweeteners, Stress: What the Cancer Evidence Shows A 2024 review of 63 studies found phone use not linked to glioma; aspartame is 'possibly carcinogenic' on limited evidence. How IARC labels are misread. With sources. Read the study Understanding the evidence Reading Cancer Survival Figures: What Five-Year Survival Can and Cannot Tell Net, relative and observed survival explained, and why survival can rise with no fall in deaths: across 20 US cancers, survival and mortality changes did not correlate. With sources. Read the study