The number of people newly diagnosed with cancer edged higher in 2007, with colorectal cancer remaining the most common form of the disease, ahead of liver cancer, a Department of Health (DOH) report issued yesterday showed.
A total of 75,769 new cancer cases were recorded in 2007, 3.4 percent more than in 2006, said Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞), director-general of the Bureau of Health Promotion.
Those figures equate to a new cancer patient being diagnosed roughly every 7 minutes in 2007, slightly faster than every 7 minutes and 10 seconds in the previous year, when 73,293 new cases were recorded, Chiou said.
The 2007 statistics were the latest figures available because the DOH needs time to collect raw cancer data from local hospitals and then conduct cross-checks to make sure there was no double-counting of patients — if, for example, they have been to more than one hospital for diagnosis or misidentified.
Colorectal cancer remained the most diagnosed type of cancer in 2007 after overtaking liver cancer as the most common form of the disease in 2006.
Kung Hsien-lan (孔憲蘭), a section chief at the Cancer Control and Prevention Division, attributed the increased prevalence of colorectal cancer to increasingly unhealthy dietary habits, such as the high consumption of red meat and fat and low fiber intake.
After colorectal cancer and liver cancer, the next most frequently diagnosed forms of the disease in 2007 were lung cancer, breast cancer and oral cancer.
These five types accounted for 56 percent of all new cancer patients in 2007.
The risk of contracting cancer was 1.4 times higher among men than women, Chiou said.
Because of the higher number of males smoking or chewing betel nuts, the age-adjusted incidence rates of esophageal cancer and oral cancer among men were 12.7 times and 11.3 times higher respectively than among women in 2007, Chiou said.
Prostate cancer is also a major concern, he said, with 3,367 men diagnosed in 2007, adding that the figure might be too conservative given the unique nature of the disease.
“Unlike other types of cancer, prostate cancer grows very slowly,” he said. “Some might not even know they had prostate cancer before dying.”
Meanwhile, the incidence of breast cancer and thyroid gland cancer posted the largest increase among Taiwanese women, Kung said. Both diseases are related to imbalances in female sex hormones, she said.
High fat diets and high caloric intake, which could play havoc with female hormones, have raised the cancer risk profile of Taiwanese women, Kung said.
She said that Taiwanese women were found to develop breast cancer an average of 10 years earlier than their Western counterparts.
Chiou and Kung said the bureau would expand its free early cancer detection program by offering more free tests — mammography screening for breast cancer, Pap smear tests for cervical cancer, taking samples of a patient’s mucous membrane for oral cancer, and fecal occult blood tests for colorectal cancer.
Chiou estimated that the program would help detect an additional 10,000 new cancer cases this year, and those identified as having the disease would be given immediate medical attention.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
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