Participants throw their bras into sky to raise awareness of breast cancer in Hangzhou city, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, June 22, 2015. (Photo/CFP)
China faces "huge challenges" from cancer amid a marked increase in new cases and deaths of the disease in recent years, a new report has found.
About 2,814,000 Chinese died from cancer in 2015, corresponding to over 7,500 cancer deaths on average per day, said the report published this week in the U.S. journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The report, compiled by researchers at the National Cancer Center in Beijing, China's capital, also showed there were about 4,292,000 newly diagnosed invasive cancer cases last year in China, which would equal to an average of almost 12,000 new cancer diagnoses each day.
"Cancer incidence and mortality have been increasing in China, making cancer the leading cause of death since 2000 and a major public health problem in the country," wrote the report.
"Because of China's large population size, approximately one-fifth of the world population, these Chinese data contribute significantly to the global burden of cancer: almost 22 percent of global new cancer cases and close to 27 percent of global cancer deaths occur in China."
Among Chinese men, the five most common forms of cancers were lung, stomach, esophagus, liver, and colorectum, which together accounted for about two-thirds of all cancer cases.
Among women, the most common forms were breast, lung and bronchus, stomach, colorectum, and esophagus, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all cases. Breast cancer alone was estimated to account for 15 percent of all new cancers in women in China.
The five leading causes of cancer death among both men and women in China are cancers of the lung and bronchus, stomach, liver, esophagus, and colorectum, accounting for about three-quarters of all cancer deaths.
Similar to the incidence rates, the mortality rate for all cancers combined is substantially higher in men than in women -- 165.9 vs. 88.8 per 100,000 -- and in rural areas than in urban areas, said the report.
For all cancers combined, the incidence rates were stable between 2000 and 2011 for males -- 10.2 percent per year, whereas they increased significantly -- 12.2 percent per year -- among females.
While the mortality rates since 2006 have decreased by about 21 percent per year for both males and females in China, the number of cancer deaths increased by 73.8 percent during the same because of the aging and growth of the population.
"These latest estimates demonstrate that China faces huge challenges in managing the very large and increasing burden of cancer now and in the future," said the report.
The findings were based on high-quality data from 72 local, population-based cancer registries from 2009 to 2011, representing 6.5 percent of the Chinese population.
Notably, the researchers said many of the cancer cases and deaths in China can be prevented through reducing the prevalence of risk factors, while increasing the effectiveness of clinical care delivery, particularly for those living in rural areas and in disadvantaged populations.
The largest contributor to avoidable cancer deaths in China was chronic infection, which is estimated to account for 29 percent of cancer deaths, predominantly from stomach cancer, liver cancer and cervical cancer.
The following was tobacco smoking, which accounted for about one-quarter of all cancer deaths in China.
The report put the measured attributable risk for environmental pollution at a low level, but noted the health impact could "be felt for many decades in China, particularly for people in rural areas who are facing very rudimentary living environments."
