Cancer statistics and cancer services both carry vocabulary that decides what a sentence means. A figure described as incidence answers a different question from one described as prevalence, and a screening programme described as opportunistic behaves differently from one described as organised. The entries below cover the terms that appear on these pages.
Counting cancer
Incidence — the number of new cancers arising in a population in a stated period, usually a year. Ethiopia’s estimated incidence for 2024 was 79,239 new cases (opens in a new tab).
Mortality — the number of deaths from cancer in a stated period. Ethiopia’s estimate for 2024 was 46,841 (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024). Incidence and mortality for the same year describe two different groups of people and cannot be divided into a survival figure.
Prevalence — the number of people alive with a diagnosis. It is always given for a stated period since diagnosis: Ethiopia’s five-year prevalence for 2024 was 142,431 (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024), meaning people diagnosed within the previous five years and still living.
Crude rate — cases or deaths per 100,000 people, without adjustment. It reflects the age structure of the population as it is.
Age-standardised rate (ASR) — cases or deaths per 100,000, recalculated as though the population had a standard age distribution. Age-standardisation is what makes countries or periods with different age profiles comparable. Ethiopia’s age-standardised incidence rate for 2024 was 94.6 per 100,000 and its mortality rate 59.4 (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024).
Cumulative risk — the chance that a person would develop, or die from, a cancer before a stated age if the current rates held and no other cause of death intervened. Ethiopia’s cumulative risk of developing any cancer before age 75 was estimated at 9.9% for 2024 (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024).
Mortality-to-incidence ratio — deaths in a year divided by new cases in the same year. It is used in modelling and is not a survival rate; the people counted in each figure are not the same people.
Uncertainty interval — the range within which an estimate is judged to lie, printed in brackets after the value. Where two values’ intervals overlap substantially, the difference between them is not distinguishable from no difference.
Modelled estimate — a figure produced by applying rates or ratios rather than by counting. Every Ethiopian cancer figure we publish is one.
Population-based cancer registry — a system that records every cancer diagnosed among the residents of a defined area, producing counts rather than estimates. Two records of Ethiopia’s position sit side by side, and cancer in Ethiopia states both.
GLOBOCAN — the set of national cancer estimates published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the WHO agency responsible for cancer research. Estimates are reissued periodically; successive rounds use different methods and denominators and should not be compared with one another. We use the 2024 estimates, version 1.0, released in July 2026.
Attributable fraction — the share of cases at a site, or overall, judged to follow a particular exposure.
How evidence about causes is classified
IARC Monographs — the programme that evaluates whether specific agents cause cancer in people. It assesses agents, not lifestyles, and its classifications (opens in a new tab) are grouped by how certain the evidence is.
Carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) — the category for agents where the evidence of causing cancer in people is judged sufficient. 135 agents were in it at IARC’s July 2026 update.
Probably carcinogenic (Group 2A), possibly carcinogenic (Group 2B), not classifiable (Group 3) — the successive categories below it, holding 98, 329 and 498 agents respectively at that update.
Sufficient evidence, limited evidence — the two strengths recorded against each agent for each cancer site. Sufficient evidence at a site is what places an agent in the top group; limited evidence at another site is recorded separately and is a weaker finding.
A group states how certain the evidence is, not how large the risk is. Agents in the same group can differ greatly in the risk they carry.
Screening and what follows it
Screening — a test offered on the basis of age or another characteristic to people who have noticed nothing.
Assessment — what follows a change a person has already noticed. It is not a substitute for screening, and screening is not a substitute for it.
Pre-cancer, precancerous lesion — an abnormal area that may become cancer if untreated. On the cervix such change rarely causes symptoms (opens in a new tab) and usually precedes cancer by 15 to 20 years.
Opportunistic screening — screening offered when a person happens to attend a facility for any reason. Ethiopia’s cervical programme is of this kind.
Organised screening (call and recall) — screening in which people are invited at a set age and recalled at a set interval.
VIA (visual inspection with acetic acid) — a screening test in which acetic acid, ordinary vinegar, is applied to the cervix; abnormal areas turn white. It is Ethiopia’s routine cervical screening test.
High-performance test — an HPV DNA test or equivalent molecular test, which detects the virus rather than the changes it produces. WHO’s 70% screening target for 2030 is written for tests of this kind. VIA is not one.
Colposcopy — examination of the cervix using magnification, as against examination by eye.
Thermal ablation — treatment in which a heated probe destroys abnormal cells. Cryotherapy does the same with a cold probe. LEEP, also written LEETZ, uses an electrically heated wire loop to remove the abnormal tissue. Cone biopsy removes a cone of tissue surgically for further examination.
Screen and treat — a service model in which treatment is given at the same visit as the screening test. Screen, triage and treat adds a second test before treatment, so treatment needs a second visit; WHO recommends it for women living with HIV.
Self-collection — a woman taking her own sample for HPV testing. WHO’s cervical cancer fact sheet of 3 July 2026 states that such samples are as reliable as those a health worker collects.
Prevention terms
HPV (human papillomavirus) — a family of around 200 viruses spread by sexual contact. High-risk types are those that can cause cancer if infection persists; WHO’s two July 2026 publications differ on how much cervical cancer types 16 and 18 account for: the cervical cancer fact sheet gives around 76%, WHO’s immunization and vaccines HPV page around 70%. Both are on the record.
Elimination (of cervical cancer) — defined by WHO as reducing incidence below 4 new cases per 100,000 women a year. Ethiopia’s estimated age-standardised rate for 2024 was 20.2 (IARC, GLOBOCAN 2024).
90–70–90 — the three targets for 2030 set by WHO’s Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative: 90% of girls fully vaccinated by age 15, 70% of women screened with a high-performance test by 35 and again by 45, and 90% of women with pre-cancer or cancer treated.
Administrative coverage and estimated coverage — the two ways vaccination coverage is reported. Administrative coverage is what a country reports from its own records; the estimate is produced independently by WHO and UNICEF. For Ethiopia they differ by a wide margin: administrative reporting recorded female HPV coverage of 90–94% for 2019 to 2023 and 96.0% first dose for 2025, against WHO’s estimate of 51% for 2025. Both series sit in WHO systems (opens in a new tab) (Global Health Observatory, indicator SDGHPVRECEIVED for the estimate).
Chronic hepatitis B — hepatitis B infection that persists rather than clearing. Infection acquired in infancy becomes chronic in about 95% of cases; infection acquired in adulthood in fewer than 5% (WHO hepatitis B fact sheet). Birth dose is the hepatitis B vaccine dose WHO recommends within 24 hours of birth, and which Ethiopia’s schedule includes.
Helicobacter pylori — a stomach bacterium and an established cause of stomach cancer. Aflatoxins are produced by moulds and are an established cause of liver cancer.
Surveys and instruments named on these pages
STEPS — the national survey of risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Ethiopia’s round was fielded in 2015 and published in 2016.
GATS and GYTS — the Global Adult Tobacco Survey and the Global Youth Tobacco Survey. Ethiopia’s GATS was fielded in 2024 and its GYTS in 2023.
MPOWER — the WHO package of tobacco demand-reduction measures, scored by country. WHO FCTC is the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the treaty those measures implement.
Terms used about Ethiopian services
As they appear in the WHO and WHO AFRO material used here: the Health Extension Program delivers primary health services through health extension workers based at health posts, the facility level below a health centre. Kebele and woreda are the local and district administrative units those sources use when describing where services reach.