More than 403,000 people are being diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK, according to our latest statistics.

That’s a new high in cancer cases, and it’s a stark illustration of the scale of the UK’s cancer challenge: around 1,100 people are being diagnosed with cancer every day – one person every 80 seconds.

The record high is the headline number in our Cancer in the UK Report for 2026, which also breaks down the factors that are contributing to the rise and sets out what the country can do to slow it down.

The report comes at a crucial moment. We’ve made incredible progress against cancer, and today, 1 in 2 people diagnosed with the disease in the UK will survive it for at least 10 years, compared to around 1 in 4 in the early 1970s. But, with the impact of cancer and the pressures on the NHS growing, these improvements are now at risk of stalling.

Encouragingly, the UK Government’s recently published National Cancer Plan for England lays out an ambitious strategy for getting things back on track. But it still needs to be properly funded and fully implemented, as does Scotland’s cancer strategy. Meanwhile, Wales needs to develop its own national approach to help drive progress, and Northern Ireland should take urgent action to reduce unacceptable waits for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

“Publishing the plan is not a ‘job done’ on cancer,” warns Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive. The Cancer in the UK report is a guide to what needs to happen next.

Tackling smoking and obesity 

Although UK smoking rates are now at their lowest levels on record, there are still 5.3 million adults using tobacco across the country.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which is now set to become law, will help push that number down in the years to come. It’s designed to prevent anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from ever legally being sold tobacco in their lifetime, creating the UK’s first smokefree generation and helping prevent cancers linked to tobacco.

However, the Bill won’t apply to anyone who can legally be sold tobacco today. Governments and health services across the UK also need to ensure people who currently smoke can access the support that can help them stop, particularly in the deprived areas that experience health inequalities related to tobacco.

It’s also important to tackle other leading preventable causes of cancer, like overweight and obesity, which is linked to more than 1 in 20 cancer deaths in the UK.

Recent restrictions on marketing products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) are an important step towards protecting younger generations from obesity-related cancers, but they need to be robustly implemented and enforced. There’s no silver bullet to tackling obesity, so governments will also need to bring together different measures into a comprehensive approach to helping people maintain a healthy weight.

Helping more people benefit from cancer screening 

Preventing cancers linked to smoking and obesity is vital for slowing the rise in cancer cases. But, to improve outcomes for people who do have cancer, the NHS also needs to diagnose the disease earlier, when treatments are more likely to be successful.

Cancer screening programmes, which can detect cancers before symptoms appear, are a crucial tool for doing that. Today, roughly 6% to 7% of cancer patients in the UK are diagnosed through screening, but there’s room for improvement. The Cancer in the UK report estimates that England could push that percentage up to around 9%, and catch an extra 11,000 cancers through screening, by expanding and optimising its four screening programmes (for breast cancer, bowel cancer, cervical cancer and lung cancer).

The most impactful step would be to fully implement targeted lung screening for 55 to 74-year-olds with a history of smoking. This alone could help spot nearly 7,800 additional lung cancers in England, the nation furthest along in rolling out the programme.