Asia's cancer rates to spike by 2020 亚洲癌症发病率2020年达高峰

Asia's cancer rates to spike by 2020
Last Updated: Monday, April 23, 2007 | 9:59 AM ET
The Associated Press

The number of cancer cases in Asia is set to rise dramatically by 2020 due largely to longer life spans and changing lifestyles, threatening a health crisis as poorer countries in the region struggle to afford care.

A fast-growing population coupled with people living longer and undergoing extreme changes to diet and lifestyle will place a major burden on developing countries that cannot afford screening, vaccines and expensive treatment, experts said at a conference in Singapore.

"Many believe that cancer is somehow only a problem of affluent and aging societies. That's not true, of course," said Richard Horton editor and publisher of The Lancet medical journal, which sponsored the weekend conference.

Others believe "cancer is somehow inevitable, that one is predisposed to it genetically. Again, that's not true. Forty per cent of cancers can be prevented by simple changes in lifestyle."

Cancer of the lungs, stomach and liver are the biggest problems in Asia followed by breast and colon cancers. The total number of new cancer cases in the region is projected to balloon from 4.5 million in 2002 to 7.1 million in 2020 if nothing changes.
肺癌，胃癌和肝癌是亚洲地区的三大癌症，其次是乳腺癌和结肠癌。预计到2020年该地区癌症新发病例将会上升到710万，2002年仅为450万例。

"This will put a tremendous burden on patients, their families and the health-care system in each country," said Singapore Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan. "Singapore will not be spared. Cancer is already our top killer and we are bracing ourselves for the disease burden to increase as our population ages."