Last year more than four million people were diagnosed with cancer in China. A further three million died from the disease – that’s more than 8000 people a day.

China has around 20 percent of the world’s population, but more than 27 percent of worldwide cancer deaths. It’s not surprising that cancer has been the leading cause of death in China since 2010.

Lung cancer remains the biggest killer, and is rising across the country: since the last decade, the number of cases has increased by 50 percent in Beijing. Even more shockingly, some industrial provinces have seen a four-fold rise in lung cancer.

In a report in the American Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Chinese academics claimed that lung cancer rates were expected to rise, and named pollution, chronic infections and smoking as the primary causes.

In total, lung cancer has increased by 306 percent from 1973 to 2012, finds the Tumour Hospital in Heibei. While China does not have the highest rate of lung cancer in the world – this unfortunate title belongs to Hungary – it is one of the few places where the number of cases is rising. 

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数据显示，中国去年有超过400万人口确诊罹患癌症，还有超过300万人口死于疾病——这意味着每天死亡人数不少于8000人。

中国人口总数占全球的20%左右，死于癌症的案例比重却超过了世界的27%。其实自2010年以来，癌症已成为导致中国人口死亡的主要原因。

其中，肺癌致死的案例仍是最多，且这个趋势在全国范围呈上升趋势：相比十年之前，现在北京肺癌患者死亡率已经高达50%。

在《临床肿瘤期刊》报道中，中国学者称癌症患病率上升是可预见的，并将其主要患病原因归结于部分污染，慢性疾病以及吸烟。

河北省一家肿瘤医院指出，肺癌患病率自1973年至2012年已上升到306%。虽然中国的癌症致死比率并非全球最高——这个不幸的榜首头衔属于匈牙利，但在全球为数不多的几个肺癌死亡率上升的国家中，中国仍跻身其中。

This article was originally published by our sister magazine Urban Family (WeChat ID: urbanfamilyshanghai). For more articles like this, visit the Urban Family website by clicking "Read More" below or follow the bilingual Urban Family WeChat account by scanning the QR code below.