86 Ma and Yu: Global Burden of Cancer Figure 1. Number of Incident Cancer Cases in 2002 (all ages, all sites but skin*). Eastern Asia North America South Central Asia Eastern Europe Western Europe Southern Europe South America South Eastern Asia Northern Europe Eastern Africa Western Asia Central America Western Africa Northern Africa Australia/New Zealand Middle Africa Caribbean Southern Africa Melanesia Polynesia Micronesia *No bars are shown for Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia because the numbers of incidence cancer cases in these three regions were very small. were female. Nearly 45 percent of the new cases were diagnosed in Asia, 26 percent in Europe, 15 percent in North America, 7 per- cent in Latin America, and 6 percent in Africa. For males and females combined, the most common cancer site worldwide was lung (965,446 male and 386,875 female cases per year). The second most common site was colon (550,513 males and 472,743 females), followed by stomach (603,003 males and 330,290 females). Among women, the number one cancer site was breast (1,152,161 new cases per year), fol- lowed by cervix (493,100 cases), and colon (472,743 cases). Among men, the three most common cancer sites were lung (965,446 cases), prostate (679,060 cases), and stom- ach (603,003 cases). The number of deaths caused by cancer worldwide in 2002 was 6,723,887, among which 3,795,991 were male and 2,927,896 were female. Lung cancer led to most cancer deaths in the world. In 2002, the total death toll due to lung cancer was 1,179,074, of which 848,321 were male and 330,753 were female. The second on the list was stomach cancer, which resulted in a total of 699,803 deaths, including 445,691 in males and 254,112 in females. Liver cancer was the number three cause of cancer mortality. A total of 598,412 deaths (416,926 male and 81,486 female) were attributed to liver can- cer in 2002. For women, the top three sites for cancer mortality were breast (411,093 deaths), lung (330,753 deaths), and cervix uteri (273,449 deaths), while lung (848,321), stomach (445,691), and liver (416,926) con- stituted the top three sites for cancer mortal- ity in men. INCIDENCE OF CANCER BY GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS Of the 21 regions listed in the GLOBO- CAN 2002 database, East Asia had the largest number of incident cancer cases (all ages, all sites except skin) in 2002 (n = 2,890,311); North America and South Cen- tral Asia were second (n = 1,570,520) and third (n = 1,261,527) on the list, respectively (Figure 1). The pattern of cancer sites varied substantially from region to region. For ex- ample, the three most common cancer sites among individuals 15 years or older in East Asia were stomach (18.9 percent), lung (17.1 percent), and liver (14.3 percent), whereas those in North America were prostate (16.5 percent), breast (14.7 per- cent), and lung (14.5 percent) (Figures 2-3). For both males and females, the inci- dence rate of cancer increased substantially with age. For example, the annual male can- cer incidence in the age group of 0 to 14 years was 6.45 per 100,000 in Western Africa, 9.07 per 100,000 in Eastern Asia, 14.10 per 100,000 in Western Europe, and