Commonality with cancer

Cancer incidence and mortality statistics reported by the American Cancer Society¹ and other resources were used to create the list. To qualify as a common cancer for the list, the estimated annual incidence for 2019 had to be 40,000 cases or more.

The most common type of cancer on the list is breast cancer, with 271,270 new cases expected in the United States in 2019. The next most common cancers are lung cancer and prostate cancer. 

Because colon and rectal cancers are often referred to as “colorectal cancers,” these two cancer types are combined for the list. For 2019, the estimated number of new cases of colon cancer and rectal cancer are 101,420 and 44,180, respectively, adding to a total of 145,600 new cases of colorectal cancer.