1 million lung cancer victims in China by 2025
Staff Reporter 2013-11-19 16:12 (GMT+8)
A cigarette. (Photo/CFP)
Lung cancer has become the top killer in China. The death rate of the cancer has seen a 465% rise in the past three decades. The number of lung cancer patients is expected to reach a million by 2025, reports The Beijing Times.
The cause of the steep rise in the cancer's prevalence is thought to be related to lifestyle choices, such as smoking. "Tobacco is the main cause of lung cancer. 40% of cancer is avoidable," said the deputy director and secretary of the Cancer Foundation of China Zhao Ping, who added that lung cancer is responsible for 22.7% of all deaths caused by cancer. There is an increase of 120,000 in the number of patients with the cancer between 2000 and 2005. The number of men has grown from 260,000 in 2000 to 330,000 in 2005.
Most male smokers are aged between 25 and 44 or 45 and 64. A survey shows that the earlier a smoker quits smoking, the less likely they will get lung cancer. The danger caused by tobacco can be reduced 90% if a smoker quits smoking before middle age. Statistics also show that smoking leads to up to 13 kinds of cancer.
China manufactures 1,700 billion cigarettes every year, 2.5 times the number manufactured by the US, the second largest cigarette manufacturer in the world by country. There are 1.1 billion smokers in the world, and 350 million smokers in China.
