Where to Find 2014 Cancer Statistics and Estimates

With cancer accounting for approximately 1 in 4 US deaths it is important to know a good resource for cancer-related statistics.  Luck for us, the 2014 Cancer Facts and Figures has just been released by the American Cancer Society.  This is an excellent resource on the distribution of cancer by age, sex, race, type, and geographic location in the United States.  It includes cancer specific information on new cases, deaths, signs and symptoms, risk factors, prevention, early detection, treatment, and survival.  This is a wonderful, up-to-date resource for getting cancer-related estimates on prevalence, incidence, mortality, and survival in the US as well as look at trends and statistics from years past.  In addition, the website includes a wealth of other resources including tables, slides, and figures that are handy visual aids for presentations.

Worldwide Cancer Statistics

When drafting manuscripts and preparing presentations it is often nice to display relevant cancer statistics to give the audience a perspective of the scope of the disease.  GLOBOCAN is an excellent tool that provides a variety of worldwide cancer statistics.  Estimated 2008 cancer incidence, mortality, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are available for 184 countries and 27 cancer types. Although the figures are far from polished, they do provide just about any cancer statistic I could think of.  Highlights include interactive maps, sex stratified analyses, and age-adjusted rates.