Report: An average number of over 10,000 Chinese people diagnosed with cancer every day

There was an average number of over 10,000 Chinese people diagnosed with cancer per day in 2015, with lung cancer ranking first in terms of the number of patients found suffering from the disease, according to Report of cancer epidemiology in China, 2015, Health News reported on Feb 13.

About 3.93 million Chinese people were diagnosed with cancer in 2015, while 2.34 million patients across the country died of cancer in the same year, according to the report, a newly achieved fruit of China’s National Cancer Center (NCC).

The report, which was published on the latest Chinese Journal of Oncology in January 2019, disclosed that over the past more than ten years, the incidence rate of cancer in China has experienced a rise of about 3.9 percent on an annual basis, while the country’s mortality rate for cancer has maintained an annual growth rate of 2.5 percent.

With the number of cancer patients on the rise, China needs to do over 220 billion yuan (about $32.55 billion) in spending on relevant medical services each year, suggested the report, indicating that China’s increasingly aging population is the leading cause of its cancer burden.

According to the report, Chinese cancer patients are mainly suffering from such cancers including lung cancer, liver cancer, tumors of the digestive system, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer.

In the nearly 3.93 million new cancer cases, there were about 2.15 million male patients and about 1.78 female patients, indicated the report.

Lung cancer topped the list of cancers suffered by male patients, with about 520,000 new cases discovered every year, while breast cancer, with around 304,000 cases newly found every year, ranked the first among other cancers suffered by female patients.

The report also revealed that in recent years, China has witnessed significant growth in thyroid cancer cases and prostate cancer cases, with thyroid cancer becoming the fourth most prevalent cancer for female patients and prostate cancer the sixth more frequent cancer for male patients.

The overall five-year survival rate of cancer is around 40.5 percent in China, up about 10 percentage points from that of a decade ago, said the report.

Reports indicate that China is now carrying out critical tasks for the purpose of cancer prevention and control and the country has established provincial-level cancer centers in 20 provinces and 574 cancer monitoring stations.

China has built the foundation of a network for use in cancer registration and follow-up visits, said the report, indicating that all these efforts will be helpful in curbing the country’s increasing burden of cancer.