Cancer death rates rise steeply with age.
The chart shows this for a wide range of cancers, including bladder, breast, colorectal, stomach, and prostate cancer. The data comes from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Long-term exposure to risk factors — such as smoking, radiation, and certain infections — damages our cells. This damage accumulates with age, increasing the chances of cancerous mutations. In addition, our cells’ ability to repair this damage also weakens, allowing the mutations to accumulate.
Cervical cancer has a slightly different shape: its risks rise at a much younger age and then slow down. This is because it is caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), typically spread through sexual contact at younger ages. Without HPV, it’s very rare for this cancer to develop, and infection can be prevented with early vaccination.
Read more about the risks of cancer with age →
Where this page came from
This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Cancer death rates rise steeply with age” by Saloni Dattani, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.
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Licence: CC BY 4.0 · Adapted from ourworldindata.org
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