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 of how widespread cancer is in the United States.

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, and is based on incidence and mortality data in the US from 2017 through 2019, 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 59 of developing pancreatic cancer (100/1.7 = 59).
• Put another way, 1 out of every 59 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.

Males

	Risk of developing		Risk of dying from
	%	1 in	%	1 in
Any cancer	40.9	2	20.2	5
Bladder (includes in situ)	3.86	28	0.9	111
Brain and nervous system	0.7	147	0.5	189
Breast	0.1	727	<0.1	3,312
Colon and rectum	4.3	23	1.7	578
Esophagus	0.8	128	0.7	138
Hodgkin lymphoma	0.2	435	<0.1	2,899
Kidney and renal pelvis	2.3	44	0.6	177
Larynx (voice box)	0.5	200	0.2	570
Leukemia	1.8	55	0.9	108
Liver and bile duct	1.5	66	1.0	96
Lung and bronchus	6.2	16	4.7	21
Melanoma of the skin*	3.5	28	0.4	240
Multiple myeloma	0.9	106	0.5	219
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma	2.3	43	0.8	128
Oral cavity and pharynx (mouth and throat)	1.7	60	0.4	240
Pancreas	1.7	59	1.4	71
Prostate	12.6	8	2.4	41
Stomach	1.0	102	0.4	246
Testicles	0.4	246	<0.1	4,966
Thyroid	0.6	155	0.1	1,706

Females

	Risk of developing			Risk of dying from
	%	1 in	%		1 in
Any cancer	39.1	3	17.7		6
Bladder (includes in situ)	1.1	91	0.3		294
Brain and nervous system	0.5	188	0.4		241
Breast	12.9	8	2.5		39
Cervix	0.7	153	0.2		466
Colon and rectum	3.9	26	1.6		63
Esophagus	0.2	439	0.2		524
Hodgkin lymphoma	0.2	532	<0.1		3,819
Kidney and renal pelvis	1.3	75	0.3		316
Larynx (voice box)	0.1	852	<0.1		2,346
Leukemia	1.3	78	0.7		152
Liver and bile duct	0.7	146	0.6		181
Lung and bronchus	5.8	17	4.0		25
Melanoma of the skin*	2.4	41	0.2		465
Multiple myeloma	0.7	134	0.4		275
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma	1.9	53	0.6		167
Oral cavity and pharynx (mouth and throat)	0.7	141	0.2		537
Ovary	1.1	88	0.8		123
Pancreas	1.6	61	1.4		73
Stomach	0.6	157	0.3		359
Thyroid	1.7	59	0.1		1,440
Uterus	3.1	33	0.7		152

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