1 Introduction

Data on cancer diagnoses is provided to UK Biobank by the NHS Digital and Public Health England for participants residing in England and Wales, and the NHS Central Register (NHSCR) for participants residing in Scotland. Cancer registries acquire information on cancer diagnoses from a variety of sources including hospitals, cancer centres and treatment centres, hospices and nursing homes, private hospitals, cancer screening programmes, other cancer registers, general practices, death certificates, and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and Cancer Waiting Time (CWT) data. (In many instances, more than one source of information is available to cancer registries from a single organisation, for example hospital patient information systems, pathology laboratories, medical records departments and radiotherapy databases). This report details the number of prevalent and incident cases of cancer within the UK Biobank cohort, as identified through linkage to national cancer registries.

2 Aim

The aim of this report is to provide researchers with an indication of the numbers of prevalent and incident cases of cancers in the UK Biobank Resource, in order to guide timings for submitting cancer-related research applications. Please See Table 1.

  • Prevalent cases of cancer are defined as those diagnosed prior to the recruitment date into UK Biobank.
  • Incident cases of cancer are defined as those diagnosed after the recruitment date into UK Biobank.

3 Inclusion criteria

  • If a participant was diagnosed with cancer before and after baseline, only the prevalent case is counted.

  • If a participant was diagnosed several times with cancer in the same site, only the first one is counted.

  • If a participant was diagnosed with cancer in different sites on different dates, only the first one is counted.

  • If a participant was diagnosed with cancer in different sites on the same date, both are counted. This occurs for (N = 687 individuals with prevalent cancers and 340 individuals with incident cancers).

  • ICD10 diagnoses C44.0-C44.9 (non-melanoma skin cancer) are excluded.

  • This summary includes only cancers identified from the cancer registry. Cancer records from self-reported cancer, primary care records, hospital records are not included here.

  • The numbers of cases of cancers is provided by broad cancer groupings (according to ICD10 or ICD9 codes), as well as the numbers for individual sub-sites of most interest to researchers. Please contact the Access Team if you wish to enquire about the numbers of cases of a specific cancer site (i.e. for ICD10/ICD9 codes not included in this report).

  • The earliest record of cancer diagnosis in the UK Biobank cohort is 20 September 1957. This is the earliest date for which cancer registry data is available and hence cancers diagnosed prior to this date are not included here.

  • The numbers of cases of benign neoplasms may be under-estimated because not all benign neoplasms are routinely registered by cancer registries.

  • It has not been possible to identify the correct grouping for some records, owing to ambiguities in mapping some ICD9 codes to an ICD10 definition. Those records have been labelled as ‘Undefined’.

  • The contents of this document will be updated periodically, as and when follow-up data is incorporated into the UK Biobank Resource.

4 Information on this report

  • This report was created on 18 March, 2024.
  • This report includes the numbers of cancers diagnosed during complete follow-up, as defined by the UK Biobank censoring date.
  • The latest cancer registry record linked to UKBiobank data is dated 13 May, 2022
  • Summary figures of fewer than five participants have been anonymised, per UK Biobank’s guidance on reporting for uncommon and geographical variables. Please refer to the Useful Links section of this page for more information.



5 Numbers of prevalent and incident cancers

Table 1: Number of prevalent and incident cancers identified from the cancer registry for UK Biobank participants
Type Group Site Prevalent Incident
Malignant Oral cancer Total 551 989
Lip 28 27
Base Of Tongue 42 139
Other And Unspecified Parts Of Tongue 111 160
Gum 17 59
Floor Of Mouth 32 33
Palate 37 53
Other And Unspecified Parts Of Mouth 29 63
Parotid Gland 72 66
Other And Unspecified Major Salivary Glands 19 24
Tonsil 103 245
Oropharynx 12 35
Nasopharynx 25 25
Pyriform Sinus 12 28
Hypopharynx < 5 22
Other And Ill-Defined Sites In The Lip, Oral Cavity And Pharynx 9 10
Gastrointestinal cancer Total 2903 9810
Oesophagus 141 973
Stomach 149 678
Small Intestine 58 242
Colon 1374 3707
Rectosigmoid Junction 237 322
Rectum 725 1562
Anus And Anal Canal 81 182
Liver And Intrahepatic Bile Ducts 37 602
Gallbladder 7 109
Other And Unspecified Parts Of Biliary Tract 33 173
Pancreas 55 1228
Other And Ill-Defined Digestive Organs 6 32
Lung cancer Total 303 3814
Trachea < 5 < 5
Bronchus And Lung 299 3810
Respiratory cancer Total 231 282
Nasal Cavity And Middle Ear 17 42
Accessory Sinuses 9 16
Larynx 188 174
Thymus 12 32
Heart, Mediastinum And Pleura 5 15
Other And Ill-Defined Sites In The Respiratory System And Intrathoracic Organs 0 < 5
Bone cancer Total 68 50
Bone And Articular Cartilage Of Limbs 37 29
Bone And Articular Cartilage Of Other And Unspecified Sites 31 21
Skin cancer Total 2118 2743
Malignant Melanoma Of Skin 2118 2743
Mesothelioma Total 223 788
Mesothelioma 12 395
Kaposi’s Sarcoma 12 8
Peripheral Nerves And Autonomic Nervous System 12 6
Retroperitoneum And Peritoneum 33 155
Other Connective And Soft Tissue 154 224
Breast cancer Total 9184 8761
Breast 9184 8761
Female genital cancer Total 2593 2841
Vulva 71 118
Vagina 12 17
Cervix Uteri 936 111
Corpus Uteri 870 1459
Uterus 22 30
Ovary 647 970
Other And Unspecified Female Genital Organs 23 136
Placenta 12 0
Male genital cancer Total 3876 11174
Penis 36 58
Prostate 3122 11011
Testis 706 93
Other And Unspecified Male Genital Organs 12 12
Urinary tract cancer Total 1126 2536
Kidney 489 1318
Renal Pelvis 16 88
Ureter 11 64
Bladder 605 1045
Other And Unspecified Urinary Organs 5 21
Eye, brain, neural cancer Total 274 895
Eye And Adnexa 105 105
Meninges 9 10
Brain 139 766
Spinal Cord, Cranial Nerves And Other Parts Of Central Nervous System 21 14
Endocrine cancer Total 371 433
Thyroid Gland 323 403
Adrenal Gland 16 24
Other Endocrine Glands And Related Structures 32 6
Lymphoma Total 1451 2303
Hodgkin’s Disease 405 141
Follicular (Nodular) Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma 380 475
Diffuse Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma 372 1060
Peripheral And Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphomas 78 163
Other And Unspecified Types Of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma 208 401
Other Specified Types Of T-Nk-Cell Lymphoma 0 6
Malignant Immunoproliferative Diseases 8 57
Multiple myeloma Total 193 862
Multiple Myeloma And Malignant Plasma Cell Neoplasms 193 862
Leukaemia Total 515 1225
Lymphoid Leukaemia 308 750
Myeloid Leukaemia 192 441
Monocytic Leukaemia < 5 14
Other Leukaemias Of Specified Cell Type < 5 7
Leukaemia Of Unspecified Cell Type 10 13
Malignant neoplasms of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue Total 12 29
Other And Unspecified Malignant Neoplasms Of Lymphoid, Haematopoietic And Related Tissue 12 29
Carcinoma in situ In situ neoplasms Total 9231 6413
Oral Cavity, Oesophagus And Stomach 19 110
Other And Unspecified Digestive Organs 85 566
Middle Ear And Respiratory System 32 56
Melanoma In Situ 524 1306
Skin 727 706
Breast 1396 1677
Cervix Uteri 5631 393
Other And Unspecified Genital Organs 305 499
Other And Unspecified Sites 512 1100
Benign Benign cancer Total 799 722
Mouth And Pharynx < 5 0
Major Salivary Glands 46 0
Colon, Rectum, Anus And Anal Canal < 5 0
Other And Ill-Defined Parts Of Digestive System 0 < 5
Other And Unspecified Intrathoracic Organs 0 < 5
Bone And Articular Cartilage < 5 < 5
Benign Haemangioma And Lymphangioma, Any Site 5 0
Other Benign Neoplasms Of Connective And Other Soft Tissue < 5 < 5
Ovary < 5 0
Male Genital Organs 0 < 5
Urinary Organs 7 < 5
Meninges 292 398
Brain And Other Parts Of Central Nervous System 208 159
Thyroid Gland < 5 0
Other And Unspecified Endocrine Glands 222 157
Other And Unspecified Sites < 5 0
Unspecified Unspecified cancer Total 1798 2711
Other And Ill-Defined Sites 26 29
Secondary And Unspecified Malignant Neoplasm Of Lymph Nodes 98 85
Secondary Malignant Neoplasm Of Respiratory And Digestive Organs 21 172
Secondary Malignant Neoplasm Of Other Sites 22 67
Malignant Neoplasm Without Specification Of Site 41 282
Independent (Primary) Multiple Sites 0 < 5
Oral Cavity And Digestive Organs 252 244
Middle Ear And Respiratory And Intrathoracic Organs 26 18
Female Genital Organs 276 40
Male Genital Organs 31 8
Urinary Organs 369 490
Meninges 12 46
Brain And Central Nervous System 71 54
Endocrine Glands 61 31
Polycythemia Vera 122 127
Myelodysplastic Syndromes 31 277
Neoplasms Of Uncertain Or Unknown Behaviour Of Lymphoid, Haematopoietic And Related Tissue 182 514
Other And Unspecified Sites 157 226
Undefined Undefined Total 279 0
Undefined 279 0