The total of cancer cases in Asia is projected to balloon from
4.5 million in 2002 to 7.1 in 2020, straining health systems in
countries that can least afford it, according to experts quoted by
media Monday.
Speaking at Lancet Asia Medical Forum in Singapore, Richard
Horton, editor of the British medical journal Lancet,
warned Asia -- which already has most of the world's stomach and
liver cancer cases -- may account for about 58 percent of all
cancer cases in the world by then.
Donald Maxwell Parkin, a research fellow at Oxford University in
Britain, also stated that Asia may account for about 65 percent of
all cancer cases by 2050.
"Population growth will increase the number of cases," Parkin
said at the start of the two-day forum.
Once considered a disease of wealthy countries, cancer is
increasingly afflicting developing countries due to tobacco and
alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets and the lack of exercise, experts
said.
Cancer of the lungs, stomach and liver are the biggest problems in
Asia followed by breast and colon cancers, they noted.
"This will put a tremendous burden on patients, their families and
the health care system in each country," said Khaw Boon Wan,
Singapore's minister of health.
"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," he warned.
(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2007)