Chronic infections, cigarettes and pollution have contributed to cancer cases in China, with 4.3 million new cases last year and 2.8 million deaths, researchers reported Tuesday skyrocket.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of disease in China, said the report published in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and directed by Chen Wanqing National Cancer Center in Beijing.
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The report describes cancer as a major public health problem in the country with a population of about 1,370 million people.
It is based on data from 72 local cancer registries between 2009 and 2011, representing 6.5% of the population.
With these data, the researchers estimated that China would have diagnosed malignancies 4,292 million during 2015, and that the cancer had caused some 7,500 deaths a day.
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A quarter of the deaths were caused by cigarette smoking.
"The outdoor air pollution, is considered one of the worst in the world, air pollution inside homes, by the use of coal and other fuels (...) to heat homes and cook, as well as pollution in the land and drinking water make the Chinese population is highly exposed to cancer-causing agents, "the report said.
Studies in recent years have been estimated for the first time the scope of these diseases in the country, thanks to the collection of data with more precision and a larger scale than previously securing the Central National Center for Cancer Registry China.
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The most important types of cancer among men were lung cancer, stomach, esophagus, liver and colon.
Among women, breast cancer was the most common, representing 15% of all new cases among Chinese.
Death rates related to cancer have declined significantly since 2006, by 21%, but the total of deaths from this cause have increased by 74% during the same period, due to the aging population, the report said.
Chronic infections in the stomach, liver and cervix caused a third of all cancer deaths.