In 2020, gastrointestinal (GI) cancers contributed to 25.1% of the global lifetime risk of developing cancer, with colorectal cancer (CRC) presenting the highest risk among GI cancers. A study published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology by Shaoming Wang, PhD, and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, found that the global lifetime risk for developing GI cancer was one in 12 people, while one in 16 people will die from it.
The study used data from the Global Cancer Observatory 2020 for 185 countries and categorized countries into quartiles of the Human Development Index (HDI). The risk was higher in men than women and varied significantly across regions and HDI levels, with Eastern Asia having the highest lifetime risks of developing and dying from GI cancers. The study highlights the need for context-specific, targeted cancer prevention plans for different GI cancer types according to their underlying cause and causal pathways.