A new report estimates there were 4.3 million new cancer cases and more than 2.8 million cancer deaths in China in 2015, with lung cancer the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in China.
With increasing incidence and mortality, cancer is the leading cause of death in China and is a major public health problem. But China’s massive population (1.37 billion) has limited previous national incidence and mortality estimates to small samples of the population (less than 2%) using data from the 1990s or based on a specific year.
Recently, high-quality data from an additional number of population-based registries has been available through the National Central Cancer Registry of China. For the new report, Cancer Statistics in China, 2015, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, researchers led by Wanqing Chen, PhD, MD, of the National Cancer Center in Beijing, analyzed data from 72 local, population-based cancer registries (2009-2011), representing 6.5% of the population.
- For all cancers combined, the incidence rates were stable during 2000 through 2011 for males (10.2% per year), whereas they increased significantly (12.2% per year) among females.
- Tobacco smoking accounted for about one-quarter of all cancer deaths in China; yet over one-half of adult Chinese men were current smokers in 2010, and smoking rates in adolescents and young adults are still rising.
- Outdoor air pollution, considered to be among the worst in the world, indoor air pollution through heating and cooking using coal and other biomass fuels, and the contamination of soil and drinking water mean that the Chinese population is exposed to many environmental carcinogens.
— source sciencedaily.com