Cancer databases
GLOBOCAN / IARC
Global cancer statistics
"Global cancer incidence, mortality and carcinogen monographs."
About the resource
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is the WHO's specialised cancer agency, based in Lyon. Its Global Cancer Observatory (GCO) hosts GLOBOCAN — modelled estimates of cancer incidence and mortality by country, sex, age and cancer type — released roughly every 2–3 years and the standard source for global cancer statistics.
IARC also publishes Cancer Incidence in Five Continents (CI5), the underlying high-quality registry-data series; the IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans (the 'Group 1, 2A, 2B' carcinogen classifications); and the WHO Classification of Tumours (the 'WHO Blue Books' on histopathological classification of cancers).
What you'd use it for
- 01Quote global cancer-incidence and mortality estimates by country
- 02Look up the IARC carcinogen classification for an exposure
- 03Cite the WHO Blue Book classification for a tumor type
- 04Compare cancer registry quality and coverage internationally
How you access it
GCO web UIGLOBOCAN bulk downloadsCI5 datasetsMonograph PDFs