Oesophageal cancer incidence

In the UK in 2013, 8,779 cases of oesophageal cancer were diagnosed.

Of these cancer cases, 5,848 were in men and 2,931 were in women.

Oesophageal cancer mortality

Oesophageal cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in the UK. In 2013, there were 7,750 deaths from oesophageal cancer.

Of these deaths, 5,275 were men and 2,475 were women.

Proportion preventable

By far the most important thing for reducing risk of oesophageal cancer is not smoking. But scientists also estimate the following proportion of oesophageal cancer cases could be prevented in the UK through healthy changes:

There is strong evidence that maté, a hot drink popular in South America, also increases risk.

Find out more about preventability estimates or, for more detailed information, download appendix A of our policy report.

Sources

The figures come from the following sources: incidence for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; mortality for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.