Lifetime Risk of Developing or Dying From Cancer

The lifetime risk of developing or dying from cancer refers to the chance a person has, over the course of their lifetime (from birth to death), of being diagnosed with or dying from cancer. These risk estimates are one way to measure how widespread cancer is in the United States.

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Males
Females

The following tables list lifetime risks of developing and dying from certain cancers for men and women in the United States. The information is from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database,

Risk for developing cancer is based on incidence data from 2018, 2019, and 2021. Because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 is not included.

Risk of dying from cancer is based on mortality data from 2020 through 2022 in the US, the most recent years for which data are available.

The risk is expressed both in terms of a percentage and as odds.

For example, the risk that a man will develop cancer of the pancreas during his lifetime is 1.7%. This means he has about 1 chance in 60 of developing pancreatic cancer (100/1.7 is about 60).
Put another way, 1 out of every 60 men in the United States will develop pancreatic cancer during his lifetime.

These numbers are average risks for the overall US population. Your risk may be higher or lower than these numbers, depending on your particular risk factors for each type of cancer.

The percentages in the tables below are rounded to the nearest tenth, although the actual numbers are more precise. This can lead to small discrepancies in the odds in some cases.

Males

	Risk of developing		Risk of dying from
	%	1 in	%	1 in
Any cancer	39.9	3	17.2	6
Bladder (includes in situ)	3.4	29	0.8	132
Brain and nervous system	0.7	154	0.5	205
Breast	0.1	755	<0.1	3,793
Colon and rectum	4.1	24	1.5	67
Esophagus	0.8	132	0.6	158
Hodgkin lymphoma	0.2	446	<0.1	3,092
Kidney and renal pelvis	2.2	45	0.5	199
Larynx (voice box)	0.5	211	0.2	637
Leukemia	1.8	55	0.8	128
Liver and bile duct	1.5	68	0.9	108
Lung and bronchus	5.8	17	3.7	27
Melanoma of the skin*	3.5	29	0.4	269
Multiple myeloma	1.0	108	0.4	24?9
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma	2.3	44	0.7	154
Oral cavity and pharynx (mouth and throat)	1.7	61	0.3	249
Pancreas	1.7	60	1.3	78
Prostate	12.8	8	2.0	49
Stomach	1.0	104	0.3	292
Testicles	0.4	248	<0.1	4,625
Thyroid	0.6	160	0.1	1,913

Females

	Risk of developing			Risk of dying from
	%	1 in	%		1 in
Any cancer	39.0	3	16		6
Bladder (includes in situ)	1.1	93	0.3		337
Brain and nervous system	0.5	192	0.4		248
Breast	13.1	8	2.3		43
Cervix	0.6	156	0.2		486
Colon and rectum	3.8	26	1.4		72
Esophagus	0.2	437	0.2		563
Hodgkin lymphoma	0.2	536	<0.1		4,355
Kidney and renal pelvis	1.3	75	0.3		356
Larynx (voice box)	0.1	875	<0.1		2,505
Leukemia	1.3	77	0.6		170
Liver and bile duct	0.7	143	0.5		185
Lung and bronchus	5.6	18	3.5		29
Melanoma of the skin*	2.5	40	0.2		496
Multiple myeloma	0.8	133	0.3		309
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma	1.9	54	0.5		185
Oral cavity and pharynx (mouth and throat)	0.7	139	0.2		542
Ovary	1.1	89	0.7		140
Pancreas	1.7	60	1.3		78
Stomach	0.6	153	0.2		405
Thyroid	1.7	59	0.1		1,513
Uterus	3.1	32	0.7		154

*The risk numbers for melanoma are for non-Hispanic White people. The risk among people of other races/ethnicities is likely to be lower.

Written by
References

The P站视频 medical and editorial content team

Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as editors and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.

P站视频. Cancer Facts and Figures 2025. Atlanta: P站视频; 2025.

Last Revised: January 30, 2025

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