India, July 8 -- Cancer will afflict one in five of us in our lifetime and affect nearly all of us, according to World Health Organization (WHO)'s Global Status Report on Cancer 2026, released on Tuesday.

"Our experience of the disease and chances of surviving now depend less on the stage or biology of our disease than on where we live and our economic circumstances," said the report.

Data show that 20.6 million people received a cancer diagnosis worldwide in 2024 (19.5 million new cancer diagnoses excluding non-melanoma skin cancer: 9.9 million in men and 9.6 million in women); the number of new cancer diagnoses is projected to reach 35 million a year by 2050.

Cancer is also a huge public health challenge in India, with Indian Council...