Scientific report
Highlights
- While there was a decrease in overall cancer death rates in the United States between 1991 and 2021, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) predict there will have been more than 2 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 2024.
- Scientists have found that 40% of all cancers in the U.S. are linked with modifiable risk factors.
- In addition to smoking and excess body weight, alcohol intake is another important risk factor, with 5.4% of all cancers being due to alcohol use, according to the latest available data.
Report summary
The 2024 edition of the American Association for Cancer Research’s Cancer Progress Report shows that advances in cancer research and treatment have helped decrease the age-adjusted overall cancer death rate in the United States by 33% between 1991 and 2021.
Nevertheless, the researchers predict that more than 2 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2024.
A major contributor is health harming products, including alcohol.
Other reasons are barriers to certain prevention tools like vaccines and early screenings.
Remarkable progress has been made in reducing cancer mortality over the last 30 years, which came about because of strong, concerted efforts on a number of fronts,” said Ernest Hawk, MD, MPH, head of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who was not involved in this report, as per Medical News Today reporting.
This includes effective tobacco control, a greater awareness and uptake of cancer screening to identify many cancers earlier at a more treatable stage, and more effective treatments that can often be delivered while minimizing toxicities. While very encouraging, the rising rates of many incident cancers also indicates that there’s much more to be done.”
Ernest Hawk, MD, MPH, head of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at The University of Texas
40% of cancers linked with avoidable risk factors
According to the latest Cancer Progress Report, 40% of all cancer diagnoses in the U.S. are linked to modifiable risk factors. And alcohol use is a top modifiable risk factor for cancer.

Out of all the modifiable risk factors directly linked with cancer, the report highlighted alcohol use as one with a strong impact: 5.4% of all cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. in 2019 were attributable to alcohol use.
“There’s definitely a link between alcohol intake and multiple cancers, including breast, colorectal, [and] liver cancer,” said Wael Harb, MD, a board-certified hematologist and medical oncologist at MemorialCare Cancer Institute at Orange Coast and Saddleback Medical Centers in Orange County, CA, according to MNT reporting.
It’s really important for public health initiatives to focus on reducing alcohol consumption, increasing awareness about these dangers. I think that will lead to decreased risk of developing cancer.”
Wael Harb, MD, medical oncologist, MemorialCare Cancer Institute, Orange Coast and Saddleback Medical Centers, Orange County, CA
Early-onset cancers on the rise in the US
Each year in the United States an estimated 18,000 people under the age of 50 are diagnosed with an early-onset cancer – a trend that has been on the rise since 1995.
The report found that early-onset cancers are on the rise, including diagnoses rates for colorectal, breast, and other cancers in young adults younger than 50 years of age.
Researchers hypothesize that early life exposures to certain cancer risk factors that have become more prevalent in recent decades including diets rich in highly processed foods, alcohol, tobacco, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, environmental carcinogens, and an unfavorable microbiome are playing a role in the increased incidence of early-onset cancers.”
American Association for Cancer Research. AACR Cancer Progress Report 2024. Accessed on: Oct. 15, 2024. Available at: cancerprogressreport.org
While researchers are not sure of the exact reason for this rise, several factors are under investigation:
- Unhealthy diet and the microbiome,
- Obesity,
- Chemicals in the environment,
- Use of antibiotics,
- Alcohol, and
- Sedentary behaviors.
Understanding how these risk factors lead to early-onset cancers will help inform approaches for screening, prevention, and treatment.
For women who are pregnant alcohol consumption can harm the developing fetus and increase the risk of childhood cancer after birth. Research has shown a link between the degree of alcohol consumed during pregnancy and the likelihood of the child developing leukemia after birth up to the age of 14.
A large meta-analysis found that consumption of small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy increased the risk of AML in offspring by 1.6 times, while high alcohol consumption
increased AML risk by 2.4 times.
Alcohol intake at an early age can increase the risk of cancer later in life. One study found that those who have high consumption of alcohol in early adulthood increased the risk of early-onset colorectal cancer 1.5 times compared to those who did not consume alcohol even after adjusting for other factors like smoking.
The Cancer Progress Report states that another obstacle that still needs to be overcome is making early detection screenings and vaccines for vaccine-preventable cancers like cervical cancer accessible to everyone.
Additionally, the overall cervical cancer rate in women between the ages of 30 to 34 rose by 2.5% between 2012 and 2019.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S.,” said Jamie Koprivnikar, MD, oncologist and hematologist in the Division of Leukemia at the The John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey — who was not involved in this report —as per MNT reporting.
It represents a major public health crisis. Alarmingly, reports suggest that there has been a nearly 80% increase in early-onset cancer cases worldwide since 1990. The old adage prevention is worth a pound of cure definitely holds weight in this situation.”
Jamie Koprivnikar, MD, oncologist and hematologist, Division of Leukemia, The John Theurer Cancer Center, Hackensack University Medical Center, New Jersey
Call to action
The AACR makes four calls to action.
From fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2023, the U.S. Congress increased NIH funding for eight consecutive years. These funding increases for medical research accelerated the pace of scientific progress and contributed to the longer-term decline in cancer mortality in the United States.
But after years of growing federal budgets for medical research, Congress cut NIH funding in fiscal year 2024. This budget reduction threatens to curtail the progress seen in recent years and stymie future advancements. Therefore AACR urges Congress to continue to support robust, sustained, and predictable funding growth for the medical research and health programs that are vital to the fight against cancer.
AACR call on Congress to:
- Appropriate at least $51.3 billion in FY 2025 for the base budget of NIH and at least $7.934 billion for NCI.
- Provide $3.6 billion in dedicated funding for Cancer Moonshot activities through FY 2026 in addition to other funding, consistent with the President’s FY 2025 budget.
- Appropriate at least $472.4 million in FY 2025 for the CDC Division of Cancer Prevention to support comprehensive cancer control, central cancer registries, and screening and awareness programs for specific cancers.
- Allocate $55 million in funding for the Oncology Center of Excellence at FDA in FY 2025 to provide regulators with the staff and tools necessary to conduct expedited review of cancer-related medical products.
By following these recommendations, Congress will help speed the rate of discovery and create vital pathways for young scientists to contribute to future advances in cancer research. This investment will improve our nation’s health, including the lives of the millions of people who have been affected by cancer.
AACR recommendations concerning alcohol
Reducing the Risk of Cancer Development
It is estimated that 40 percent of all cancer cases in the United States are attributable to preventable causes. Many of these risk factors are modifiable such as reducing tobacco use avoiding an unhealthy diet staying physically active limiting exposure to UV radiation reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption and preventing and treating cancer-causing pathogenic infections.”
American Association for Cancer Research. AACR Cancer Progress Report 2024. Accessed on: Oct. 15, 2024. Available at: cancerprogressreport.org
Supporting Cancer Patients and Survivors
Cancer survivors should adhere to a healthy diet engage in physical activity reduce or eliminate the consumption of alcohol and stop smoking all of which help mitigate the physical challenges associated with a diagnosis of cancer.”
American Association for Cancer Research. AACR Cancer Progress Report 2024. Accessed on: Oct. 15, 2024. Available at: cancerprogressreport.org
Reduce or stop alcohol consumption
Research indicates that those who reduce alcohol consumption or stop [consuming alcohol] altogether can decrease their risk of developing alcohol-related cancers by 8 percent and can reduce their risk of all cancer by 4 percent compared to those who sustain or increase their consumption of alcohol.”
American Association for Cancer Research. AACR Cancer Progress Report 2024. Accessed on: Oct. 15, 2024. Available at: cancerprogressreport.org
Improving Health-related Quality of Life and Outcomes: Eliminating Alcohol and Tobacco Use
Consumption of alcohol can lead to adverse health and treatment outcomes among cancer patients and survivors, including increasing the risk of cancer recurrence.
Unfortunately 77.7 percent of individuals with a history of cancer report consuming alcohol. Among those who consume alcohol, 23.8 percent engage in binge alcohol use (greater than 6 alcoholic drinks in one sitting) whereas 38.3 percent engage in hazardous alcohol use as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.
While there are few interventions specifically developed for cancer survivors, cancer care
providers should refer their patients with alcohol use disorder to evidence-based treatments, including behavioral counseling and/or pharmacotherapy that have been developed for general populations.As heavy alcohol use among this population is associated with poor mental health and posttraumatic stress disorder addressing the root causes of alcohol consumption is necessary.
More research on intervention strategies specifically to reduce alcohol use disorder in cancer survivors is warranted.”
American Association for Cancer Research. AACR Cancer Progress Report 2024. Accessed on: Oct. 15, 2024. Available at: cancerprogressreport.org