Shanghai - China is seeing a rapid increase in lung cancer cases, a trend blamed largely on high rates of smoking, but also on air pollution, state media reported on Monday.
The number of lung cancer patients is expected to rise to as high as 500 000 by 2005, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing a survey by the Health Ministry's Office of Cancer Prevention and Treatment. Of that number, up to 330 000 would be male, it said.
Details of the survey, presented at a conference on cancer in the southern city of Nanjing, were not immediately available.
However, statistics from the International Agency for Research on Cancer show China had an estimated 230 360 male lung cancer cases in 2000.
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About 40 percent of all new lung cancer cases diagnosed worldwide each year are in China, a trend experts say is related to high rates of smoking and pollution.
The country is the world's biggest tobacco producer and has about 350 million smokers - almost one-third of the world total.
Several of China's biggest cities report smog bad enough to be as great a risk factor for cancer as heavy smoking. - Sapa-AP
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