Cancer Registration Statistics, England, 2021 - Full release

This section concentrates on invasive cancers excluding non-melanoma skin cancer (ICD-10 C00* to C97* excluding C44*), commonly referred to as “all cancers”. 

In 2020, there was a fall in the number of all cancers diagnosed in England, which fell 12% from 327,174 new diagnoses registered in 2019 to 288,753 new cancer diagnoses registered in 2020. This contrasted with the normal pattern of small year-on-year increases in diagnoses that was seen up to 2019. Therefore, for a more stable comparison we compare the number of registered diagnoses in 2021 against 2019 in the rest of this publication.  

(Following the October publication, in a small number of cases, counts may have changed since the original release for a range of registration reasons including potential patient opt outs.)

In 2021, there was a small increase in the number of all cancers diagnosed in England, from 327,174 new diagnoses registered in 2019 to 329,664 new cancer diagnoses registered in 2021.   

Between 2019 and 2021, the number of all cancers diagnosed in England fell by 1% for males (from 169,599 to 167,917). This fall was due to a return of the number of prostate cancer diagnoses to those seen in 2017, before the observed Fry and Turnbull effect in 2018. 

Between 2019 and 2021, the number of all cancers diagnosed in England increased by 3% for females (from 157,575 to 161,747).  

More cancers continue to be diagnosed and registered for males (167,917) than females (161,747).

The majority (94%) of all new cancer diagnoses registered continue to be found in 24 different cancers and just over half (53%) of all registered cancer diagnoses continue to be found in breast, prostate, lung, or bowel. For the first time this century, there were more diagnoses of bowel cancer (41,596) than lung cancer (39,635).

These figures are displayed in Table 3 of the accompanying data release.