Cancer rates can even increase 90 per cent in the Third World in that time, Scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer cautioned.
Many cancers such as breast, prostate and bowel tumours, are linked to unhealthy living in high-income nations.
Countries like India, Pakistan and certain African nations are said to be under threat as their standard of living improves, the Sun quoted the scientists as saying.
Global cancer cases are predicted to rise from 12.7 million in 2008 to 22.2 million in 2030. Obesity caused by eating processed or junk foods, low exercise levels and high smoking rates have been blamed.
Scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer based their findings on a snapshot of statistics for the disease from 184 countries in 2008.
The incidence and death rate estimates were used to project how cancer diagnoses were likely to change by 2030.
The study took into account forecasts of population size, ageing and national development.
Study leader Dr Freddie Bray, from the IARC in Lyons, France, said: "Cancer is already the leading cause of death in many high-income countries. It is set to become a major cause of mortality in the next few decades in every nation of the world."
He stressed "the need for global action to reduce the increasing burden of cancer".
