About

The Cancer Statistics Center is an extension of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures and Cancer Statistics reports. It allows users to interact with US statistics on cancer occurrence, risk factors, and screening, including comparing data across metrics. The website aims to serve the needs of cancer control advocates, researchers and academics, journalists, government and private public health agencies, and policy makers, as well as patients, survivors, and the general public, in order to promote cancer prevention and control.

The website provides detailed statistics on a range of topics including:

  • The estimated numbers of new cancer cases and deaths in the current year by site and state
  • Cancer incidence, mortality, and survival rates and trends
  • National and state-level risk factor and screening prevalence

Please note that ACS reserves all rights with respect to the data provided herein. Any reproduction or re-use of figures, tables, or maps should credit the American Cancer Society with the citation below. 

Suggested Citation

American Cancer Society. Cancer Statistics Center. cancerstatististicscenter.cancer.org. Accessed Month Day, Year.

Publications

Cancer Facts & Figures reports can be found at cancer.org/statistics. In addition to the annual report, there are six regularly updated titles devoted to a specific cancer type or population, as well as Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Facts & Figures, the data source for the risk factor and screening data on the Cancer Statistics Center.

Cancer Statistics articles, which include detailed information on data sources and methods and comprehensive analysis and interpretation of cancer occurrence, are available at https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.70043.

Risk factor and screening methodology

Below are the statistical notes and definitions for the cancer screening and cancer risk factors sections of the cancer statistics center. Where possible, estimates adhere to the American Cancer Society guidelines and recommendations. Adult estimates, excluding stratified by age and insurance status, are age-adjusted to the year 2000 US population standard. Youth estimates are presented crude.

Cancer Screening Definitions

Up-to-date breast cancer Mammogram within the past year (females ages 45-54 years) or past two years (females ages ≥55 years).
Up-to-date cervical cancer Papanicolaou (Pap) test in the past 3 years, combined Pap test and HPV (Human Papillomavirus) test in the past 5 years, or HPV test alone in the past 5 years among females ages 25-65 years that have not had a hysterectomy.
Up-to-date colorectal cancer Fecal occult blood test/fecal immunochemical test, sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, computed tomography colonography, or multi-target stool DNA test in the past 1, 5, 10, 5 and 3 years, respectively, among adults ages ≥45 years.
Up-to-date lung cancer Annual low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scan for adults ages 50-80 years who smoke or used to smoke and have at least a 20 pack-year history of smoking.
Prostate cancer Annual prostate specific antigen (PSA) test among males ages ≥50 years that have not previously been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

 

Cancer Risk Factor Definitions

Current cigarette smoking For adults ages ≥18 years, smoked 100 cigarettes in a lifetime and now smoke every day or some days. For high school students, smoked cigarettes on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey.
Cigarette excise tax per pack Statewide tax rates per pack of cigarettes. Presented in U.S. dollars ($). Rates are current as of July 23rd, 2025.
HPV vaccination coverage 2 doses separated by 5 months (minus 4 days) for immunocompetent adolescents ages 13 to 17 years initiating the HPV vaccine series before their 15th birthday, and 3 doses for all other adolescents ages 13 to 17 years.
Obesity prevalence For adults, a body mass index (BMI) ≥30.0 kg/m2 is obese. For high school students, a BMI ≥95th percentile of the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s growth chart is obese.
Overweight prevalence For adults ages ≥18 years, a BMI of 25.0 to <30.0 kg/m2 is overweight. For high school students, a BMI ≥85th percentile and <95th percentile of the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s growth chart is overweight.

 

Estimated cases and deaths methodology

Lui B, Zhu L, Zou J, et al. Updated methodology for projecting US and state-level cancer counts for the current calendar year: Part I: Spatiotemporal small area modeling for cancer incidence. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2021; published online June 22.

Miller KD, Siegel RL, Lui B, et al. Updated methodology for projecting US and state-level cancer counts for the current calendar year: Part II: Evaluation of temporal projection methods for incidence and mortality. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2021; published online August 17.

Data Sources

The data available on the Cancer Statistics Center are from a variety of sources and include:

  • American Cancer Society (Publications noted above)
  • DevCan software, National Cancer Institute
  • North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR)
  • National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, National Cancer Institute
  • Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Please refer to the source information provided throughout the website for more details.

Statistical Notes

The American Cancer Society projects the numbers of new cancer cases and deaths expected each year in order to estimate the contemporary cancer burden because cancer incidence and mortality data lag two to four years behind the current year. However, these estimates should not be compared to previous years because they are model based 3‐year (mortality) and 4‐year (incidence) ahead projections that vary for reasons other than changes in cancer occurrence. For example, new methodologies are adopted every few years, most recently in 2021, to take advantage of increased cancer surveillance coverage and advances in statistical modeling.

More estimated deaths than cases for ‘other leukemia’ and ‘other & unspecified primary sites’ may reflect lack of specificity in recording underlying cause of death on death certificates and/or an undercount in the case estimate.

Beginning with our 2022 data release, data for the American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) and Asian and Pacific Islander populations exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity to improve the accuracy of cancer rates. Accuracy for AIANs is also improved by limiting incidence data to the Indian Health Service’s Purchased/Referred Care Delivery Area (PRCDA) counties and by applying racial adjustment factors to national mortality data. More information can be found in Cancer Statistics for American Indian and Alaska Native Individuals, 2022, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

In the 2026 data release, diagnoses in 2020 are excluded from trend and lifetime risk analyses because the modeling programs used were not designed to accommodate such a large single-year data anomaly as the 10% drop that occurred from 2019 to 2020 because of disruptions in health care related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Puerto Rico is excluded from overall US rates due to data availability.

In the 2026 data release, rates for Arkansas are for years 2016-2019 and for Indiana for 2017-2020 because they did not meet data standards for all of the most recently available years.

Authors

The information presented on the Cancer Statistics Center website was provided by cancer surveillance research staff in the American Cancer Society’s Surveillance and Health Equity Science Department, led by Senior Vice President Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PhD.

  • Angela Giaquinto, MSPH, Associate Research Scientist II, Surveillance Research
  • Tyler B. Kratzer, MPH, Associate Research Scientist II, Surveillance Research
  • Rebecca Siegel, MPH, Senior Scientific Director

For more information or suggestion for the site, contact: [email protected]