Lifetime Risk of Male Genital Cancers Shows Sharp Global Inequality, GLOBOCAN 2022 Analysis Finds

The lifetime risk of developing or dying from penile, prostate, and testicular cancers varies dramatically across the globe, and much of that inequality tracks a country’s level of socioeconomic development, according to a population-based analysis of GLOBOCAN 2022 data covering 185 countries. The study, published in BMC Public Health, estimated that in 2022 the worldwide lifetime incidence risk of male genital cancers stood at 4.250 percent, while the lifetime mortality risk reached 1.358 percent. Behind those averages, however, lay marked geographical and socioeconomic disparities that the authors argue have been undercounted by traditional cancer statistics.

Lifetime risk estimates were calculated using an adjusted multiple primary method applied to the GLOBOCAN 2022 dataset.

Geographically, the highest lifetime incidence and mortality risks were concentrated in Northern Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and Western Europe, while the lowest figures were found across Africa. That contrast is central to the paper’s argument about inequality. To quantify it, the researchers used the concentration index, a standard tool in health economics that measures how a health burden is distributed across a socioeconomic gradient. In this case, the gradient was the Human Development Index, or HDI, a composite measure of income, education, and life expectancy published by the United Nations.

The concentration indices revealed that the burden of male genital cancers was disproportionately concentrated in countries with high HDI values.

One of the study’s most consequential conclusions concerns how cancer burden is usually measured. The traditional indicator, known as 0–74 cumulative risk, tallies the probability of developing or dying from a cancer between birth and age 74. The researchers found that this measure underestimated the inequalities in male genital cancer burden compared with lifetime risk, particularly for penile and prostate cancers, which they describe as late-onset.

The methodological distinction has practical implications for how global cancer statistics are interpreted and acted upon.

The study’s conclusions point to socioeconomic conditions and health resource inequalities as likely drivers of the uneven distribution of male genital cancer burden. The authors call for more health actions targeting these inequalities and for wider adoption of the updated lifetime risk indicator in global cancer surveillance. Their argument rests on the observation that where a man lives, and the development level of the health system serving him, shapes both his measured risk of these cancers and the resources available to detect and treat them.

Nevertheless, the work adds male genital cancers to the growing list of disease groups for which lifetime risk analysis reveals inequalities that conventional statistics obscure.

Subject of Research: Global inequalities in lifetime risk of penile, prostate, and testicular cancers based on GLOBOCAN 2022 data from 185 countries

Article Title: Global burden inequality in lifetime risk of penile, prostate, and testicular cancers: a population-based systematic analysis of GLOBOCAN 2022

Article References: You, Y., Li, Y., Wen, Q., Yuan, Q., Liu, M., Chen, R., Zheng, R., & Wang, S. (2026). Global burden inequality in lifetime risk of penile, prostate, and testicular cancers: a population-based systematic analysis of GLOBOCAN 2022. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-29312-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-026-29312-x

Keywords: GLOBOCAN 2022, male genital cancers, lifetime risk, penile cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, global health inequality, Human Development Index, concentration index, cancer burden, health resource allocation, BMC Public Health