Cancer in China: First Official Report Suggests Worrying Trends

Cancer in China: First Official Report Suggests Worrying Trends
Jan 23, 2013 By eChinacities.com

Editor's note: the following article was translated and edited from an article that first appeared in the Beijing Times. The article summarizes the findings of a recently published official report—the first of its kind—which examines 20 years of data on cancer incidence rates for registered patients. While the data is by no means comprehensive, the report nonetheless provides us with the one of the clearest pictures of cancer in China to date.


See below for detailed explanation of this map

On January 9, the National Cancer Registration Center published its annual report for 2012. The trends noted in the report were generated using data collected over the past 20 years from the cancer incidence rates of registered cancer patients in China. This data was collected from 72 monitoring sites in 24 provinces, covering a total of 85 million cancer patients. This is the first time a report using this data has been publicly released. A Beijing Times reporter learned a wealth of new information from the report, most notably that the cancer incidence rate and mortality rate have gone up, while the average age of diagnosis has gone down, meaning an increase in younger people getting cancer. What follows are some of the most interesting trends noted in the report.

Cancer incidence and mortality rates in China

-There are approximately 3.12 million new cancer cases each year—an average of 8,550 per day or six people being diagnosed with some form of cancer every minute.
-The cancer incidence rate increases with age: 87.07 per 100,000 people for the 35-39 year-olds and 154.53 per 100,000 people for the 40-44 year-olds; the cancer incidence rate in the 50-plus group accounts for approximately 80% of all cases in China, with nearly 1% of the 60-plus age group being diagnosed with cancer.
-The cancer mortality rate nationwide is 180.54 per 100,000 people, meaning that approximately 2.7 million Chinese die from cancer each year.
-At present, a Chinese person diagnosed with cancer has a 13% chance of dying from it; cancer proves fatal in one in every 7-8 people diagnosed with it.
-The cancer mortality rate is significantly higher in men than in women: 1.68: 1.

Most common and fatal types of cancer in China

-Nationwide, the most commonly diagnosed cancer is lung cancer, followed by stomach cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer and esophageal cancer. The ten most common cancers account for 76.39% of all diagnosed cases.
-Lung cancer is also the most fatal (highest mortality rate), followed by liver cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer and colon cancer. The ten most fatal cancers account for 84.27% of all cancer-related deaths
-Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate in both men and women diagnosed with cancer.

According to Chen Wanqing, the deputy director of the National Cancer Registration Center, in 1989, the national cancer incidence rate was only 184 per 100,000. However, taking aging into account, the cancer incidence rate and mortality rate have not changed all that much. That is to say, that the current increasing trend of cancer in China is largely due to the aging of the population.

Geographical distribution of different cancer types in China

-The cancer incidence rate is increasing in younger age groups. Specifically, younger people are being diagnosed with breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer and thyroid cancer more frequently than in previous years.
-Diagnoses of colon cancer are increasing in urban areas faster than rural areas.

Moreover, the data shows a clear pattern in the geographical distribution of different cancer types in China.

-Higher esophageal cancer incidence rates were mainly concentrated in Henan, Hebei and the Central Plains area.
-Higher stomach cancer incidence rates were mainly concentrated in the northwest and coastal provinces, such as Shanghai, Jiangsu, Gansu and Qinghai.
-Higher liver cancer incidence rates were mainly concentrated along the south east coast and in Jilin Province (northeastern China).

According to Shi Anli, the chairman of the Chinese Cancer Association's Cancer Rehabilitation Working Committee, despite having studied the causes of cancer for the past two decades, the complexities of the disease have prevented them from reaching any definitive conclusions (this is no less true for the United States, who is the current leader in health technology). Shi added that while Chinese experts have speculated that the geographical distribution of cancer across China may stem from local eating customs, environmental climates or other factors, ultimately no theory has proven conclusive.

Beijing case study

-Beijing Municipal Health Bureau data from 2010 shows that the highest cancer incidence rate citywide was lung cancer in men, followed by breast cancer in women.
-The lung cancer incidence rate in Beijing increased 56% from 2001 to 2010; one fifth of the city's new cancer patients are diagnosed with lung cancer.
-There is a higher lung cancer incidence rate in men than women in Beijing; the male to female ratio for newly diagnosed lung cancer patients in the city is 160:100.

According to Zhi Xiuyi, the director of thoracic (chest) surgery at the Xuanwu Hospital in Beijing, the city’s dramatic increase in the lung cancer incidence rate is due to: the aging population, urban industrialization, urbanization in outside rural areas, environmental pollution and “harmful lifestyle choices”. No doubt, one of the leading lifestyle factors is smoking, which according to medical research includes as many as 69 different harmful substances that are associated with lung cancer.
 

Source: news.ifeng.com

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Keywords: Cancer in China statistics Cancer in China data China National Cancer Registration Center China cancer trends

1 Comments

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MSI

Esophagus and lung cancer: polluted air? Liver cancer: contaminated seafood, banned chemicals? Stomach cancer: too much (tainted) meat? I am not an MD so it's only a guess :-p

Jan 23, 2013 08:59 Report Abuse