Cancer ranks as one of the diseases with prominent morbidity and mortality, which is an essential barrier to increase life expectancy worldwide. According to estimated data, 19.3 million new cancer cases and almost 10.0 million cancer deaths occurred in 2020 [1]. Significantly, aging is a vital risk factor for cancer development, cancer cases are expected to grow sustainably in the future owing to the strong influence of population aging. World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that about 64% of all cancers occurred in people over 60 in 2020 [2]. A study mentioned that cancer cases occurring in adults over 80 years worldwide will increase by over 200% in 2050 at a global level [3]. Such unprecedented growth in cancer incidence for older people is likely to impose a heavy economic burden on providing clinical and health services, which need to be adequately considered in the coming decades. In addition, a portion of cancers showed a tendency for young onset, a global study calculated about 1.19 million incident cancer cases and 396,000 deaths due to cancer among people aged 15–39 years in 2019. Cancer has become the fourth leading cause of mortality in adolescents and young adults globally [4]. Whereas the awareness of cancer screening and prevention is vulnerable among younger people, which might cause inequities in access to appropriate care, timely diagnosis, and effective treatment.

The current study indicated that the incidence of cancer is increasing across all age groups and different cancers exhibit different age characteristics. However, the future overall pattern in the cancer onset remains unclear, a comprehensive description of the profile of cancer onset is part and parcel. Understanding how the incidence and onset age of cancer change over time can help policymakers and healthcare providers better plan and allocate resources to address the needs of different age groups and develop targeted screening and prevention strategies to improve cancer outcomes. This study estimated the incidence and onset age of cancer by region and gender from 2020 to 2040, aimed to clarify the specific circumstances of cancer morbidity in the future, thus providing valuable insight for policymakers into building sustainable infrastructure to meet the needs in varieties of the age groups of populations.