We attempted to develop an indicator combining incidence with mortality rates (single measure of cancer burden, SMCB) and to compare the magnitudes of cancer burden by world region. The SMCB was used to measure the size of cancer burden summarizing the incidence and mortality. The incidence and mortality were divided in equivalent forms and were split. The criteria dividing the size of cancer burden were used as the maximum incidence and mortality by men and women according to the world database, and the value corresponding to 10% of each maximum was set as the cut-off value. In SMCB, the size of cancer burden was highest for men with lung cancer (SMCB=18) and for women with breast cancer (SMCB=14) in MDR (more developed regions) compared to the size of burden in LDR (lower developed regions) (lung, SMCB=11, breast, SMCB=8). For men, the size of cancer burden by region was highest in EURO (SMCB=18, lung), followed by WPRO (SMCB=16, lung), PAHO (SMCB=14, prostate), AFRO (SMCB=8, prostate) and SEARO (SMCB=7, lung). Moreover, for women, the size of cancer burden was greatest in EURO (SMCB=14, breast), followed by PAHO (SMCB=13, breast), AFRO (SMCB=11, cervix uteri), EMRO (SMCB=9, breast) or SEARO (SMCB=8, cervix uteri) and WPRO (SMCB=7, lung). The summary indicator will help to provide a priority setting for reducing cancer burden in health policy.