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About one in five people develop cancer during their lifetime, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). That statement describes a global population estimate. It does not mean that every person has the same risk, or that a cancer diagnosis determines the same outcome for everyone. The year attached to a statistic matters. This article originally discussed estimates for 2020. The dated figures below distinguish that report from IARC’s estimates for 2022, released in February 2024; they are not counts of diagnoses occurring today. An electron microscope image catalogued as “Breast Cancer Cell,” 1985. Source: National Cancer Institute, Visuals Online image 2175 ; photographer unidentified. Public domain, with no reuse restrictions recorded in the file’s source information. Commons thumbnail; no crop. This scientific image does not represent the frequency of cancer in a population. The original 2020 findings IARC’s release of 15 December 2020 estimated 19.3...