Diagnoses of new malignant cancers1 in England increased from 323,450 in 2018 to 327,174 in 2019, new figures from NHS Digital show.

For the first time, deprivation breakdowns have also been included in the report2. This shows that for most cancers diagnosed, the rate of cancer was highest in the most deprived areas and lowest in the least deprived (rate of cancer increases with deprivation).

However, for breast cancers the reverse is true, where the rate of breast cancer in females was 14% higher in the fifth of the population living in the least deprived areas (179 per 100,000 people), when compared to the fifth in the most deprived (157 per 100,000 people). This trend was also mirrored by prostate and non-melanoma skin cancers, as well as malignant melanomas.

The Cancer Registrations, England 2019 publication provides information on cancers that were newly diagnosed3 in the 2019 calendar year in England. Breakdowns are available by geography, sex, age bands, deprivation and diagnosis stage.

The report also shows that in 2019:

The four most common cancers registered (prostate, breast, colorectal and lung) accounted for over half of all diagnoses (53%).

Sex

Men received more diagnoses than women, with 169,599 cancers diagnosed in males in comparison to 157,575 in females

Cancer incidence for both sexes increased with deprivation4. Males in the least deprived areas had a higher rate of cancer incidence than females in the most deprived areas (649 per 100,000 for males and 621 per 100,000 for females).

Prostate cancer continued to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer in males (28% of all male diagnoses).

Breast cancer continued to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer in females (28% of all female diagnoses).

Age

Cancer incidence rates increased with age for both males and females. However, females had higher incidence rates than males between the ages of 15 and 59 years, while males had higher incidence rates when aged 60 and above.