Chinese media outlet Xinjing News has consolidated the latest data released by the World health Organization (WHO) and found that in 2020, China will rank first in the world in terms of the number of new cancer cases and cancer deaths, sounding a wake-up call for the Chinese healthcare system.
According to the information released by WHO on the number of new cancer cases in 2020, the top five countries are China, the United States, India, Japan and Germany in that order. The number of new cancer cases in China in 2020 will reach 4.57 million, and last year there were 19.29 million new cancer patients worldwide, which means that one out of every four new cancer patients worldwide will be in China, and about 12,500 people are diagnosed with cancer in China every day.
And in addition to the number of new cancer patients, China also has the highest number of cancer deaths in the world in 2020, with 3 million people dying of cancer in China last year.
According to an article in Xinjing News, this is due to China’s large population base and the growing problem of an aging population, as well as to environmental pollution, emotional stress and dietary habits.
The most common cancers in China are, in order, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, breast cancer and liver cancer. Last year, there were 820,000 new cases of lung cancer and 710,000 deaths in China, the highest number of incidence and deaths. The second highest number of deaths was liver cancer, which claimed the lives of 390,000 people in China last year.
The article analyzes that this may be due to the fact that China has 300 million smokers and 70 million hepatitis B virus carriers, two factors that increase the risk of developing lung and liver cancer, respectively.
What is noteworthy is that cancer is becoming younger in China. Looking at the data from 1990 to 2017, the proportion of people aged 15-49 who have cancer in China has increased from 0.35% to 0.89%, while the prevalence of children under 5 years old has directly increased by 2 percentage points, making it the group with the highest percentage increase among all age groups.
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