Global trends and epidemiological shifts in gastrointestinal cancers: insights from the past four decades

Sep 23, 2026

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Epidemiological profiles of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers differ across countries and time, driven by changing risk factors and screening practices. This study provides an overview of the current global burden of five major GI cancer types and evaluates long-term trends. Updated incidence, deaths, and age-standardized rates were compiled for 185 countries using GLOBOCAN 2022 and selected national databases, enabling cross-country comparisons since 1980 and trend estimation for 2003–2017.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

List of abbreviations

Keywords

DOI: 10.1002/cac2.70017 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Global trends and epidemiological shifts in gastrointestinal cancers: insights from the past four decades Mengmeng Li1 Sumei Cao1 Rui-Hua Xu2 1 Department of Cancer Prevention Research, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, P. R. China 2 Department of Medical Oncology, The State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Research Unit of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment for Gastrointestinal Cancer, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, P. R. China Correspondence Rui-Hua Xu, Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, The State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Research Unit of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment for Gastrointestinal Cancer, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, \#651 Dongfeng Road East, Guangzhou 510060, Guangdong, P. R. China. [Email:](Email: xurh@sysucc.org.cn)[ xurh@sysucc.org.cn](Email: xurh@sysucc.org.cn) Funding information Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases-National Science and Abstract Background: The epidemiological profiles of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers vary across countries and over time, largely reflecting variations in risk factors and screening practices. We aimed to provide an overview of the current global burden of the five major types of GI cancers and conduct an updated evaluation of the long-term trends of GI cancers. Methods: The updated numbers of new cases and deaths, and age-standardized rates (ASR), of the five GI cancers for 185 countries were sourced from the GLOBOCAN 2022, and presented by cancer site, continent, and human development index (HDI) . For 43 countries, annual incidence and mortality data were obtained from the Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Plus and World Health Organization mortality databases, supplemented by the mortality data from the Disease Surveillance Points system for China. We compared the longterm trends of ASRs across countries since 1980, and estimated average annual percent changes (AAPCs) for the recent period 2003-2017 . Results: In 2022, there were 4,783,391 new cases and 3,235,719 deaths from the five GI cancers, accounting for 23.9% and 33.2% of all new cancer cases and deaths worldwide, respectively. Cancers of oesophagus, stomach, and liver were more common in Asian and high HDI countries, and colorectal and pancreatic cancer in western and very high HDI countries. Downward trends were observed in almost all countries for gastric cancer and most countries for oesophageal cancer. For colorectal cancer, the most favorable and unfavorable trends were found in 10 and 19 countries respectively. The largest decreases in liver cancer burden were mainly in eastern and southeastern Asia, while increases were seen in North America, Oceania, and Northern Europe, with AAPCs of 3%∼7% for incidence and 2%∼9% for mortality during 2003-2017 . Half List of abbreviations: GI, gastrointestinal; H. pylori, Helicobacter pylori; HBV, hepatitis B virus; HCV, hepatitis C virus; ASR, age-standardized rate; MIR, mortality-to-incidence ratio; HDI, human development index; CI5, Cancer Incidence in Five Continents; WHO, World Health Organization; DSPs, Disease Surveillance Points system; ICD-10, International Classification of Diseases 10th revision; AAPC, average annual percent change; CI, confidence interval; ESCC, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; EAC, esophageal adenocarcinoma; NAFLD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no mo

FAQs

Which data sources were used to estimate global GI cancer incidence and mortality?

The study used GLOBOCAN 2022 for updated new cases, deaths, and age-standardized rates across 185 countries. For 43 countries, annual incidence and mortality data were taken from Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Plus and WHO mortality databases, with additional mortality data for China from Disease Surveillance Points.

What was the estimated global burden of the five GI cancers in 2022?

In 2022, there were 4,783,391 new cases and 3,235,719 deaths from oesophagus, stomach, liver, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers, accounting for 23.9% of new cancer cases and 33.2% of cancer deaths worldwide.

What trend patterns were observed across countries for key GI cancers?

Downward trends were reported for gastric cancer in almost all countries and for oesophageal cancer in most countries. Colorectal cancer showed both favorable and unfavorable trends across different countries, and liver cancer burden decreased mainly in eastern/southeastern Asia while increasing in North America, Oceania, and Northern Europe.

Sep 23, 2026

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