Cancer incidence and mortality in China, 2016

National Cancer Center (NCC) of China annually reports the nationwide statistics for cancer incidence and mortality using population-based cancer registry data from all available cancer registries in China.

There were a total of 487 registries which reported high quality data of cancer incidence and mortality across China in 2016. The nationwide numbers of new cancer cases and deaths were estimated using the pooled cancer registry data, which were stratified by area (urban/rural), sex, age group (0, 1-4, 5-9, 10-14…85+) and cancer site for incidence and mortality, and then multiplied by corresponding national population. The world Segi's population was applied for the calculation of age-standardized rates.

About 4,064,000 new cancer cases and 2,413,500 new cancer deaths occurred in China in 2016. Cancers of the lung, colon-rectum, stomach, liver and female breast were the top five common cancers, accounting for 57.4% of total cancer new cases. Cancers of the lung, liver, stomach, colon-rectum and esophagus were the five leading causes of cancer deaths, accounting for 69.3% of total cancer deaths. The crude and age-standardized incidence rates (ASIR) were 293.91 and 186.46 per 100,000 population, respectively. The crude mortality rate was 174.55/100,000 and the age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) was 105.19/100,000. The ASIR was higher but the ASMR was lower in urban areas than that in rural areas. In past decades, the ASIR was relatively stable in males, but significantly increased by about 2.3% per year in females for overall cancers combined. In contrast, the ASMR significantly decreased by about 1.2% per year for both sexes during 2000-2016. Notably, the cancer-specific ASIR and ASMR of esophageal, stomach, and liver cancers decreased significantly, whereas both rates for cancers of the colon-rectum, prostate, female breast, cervix, and thyroid increased significantly.

Cancer remains a major public health problem in China, which demands long-term collaborative efforts of a broad community. With the national guideline on cancer prevention and control, tailored cancer prevention and control programs are needed in different regions to help reduce the burden of these highly fatal diseases in China.