On average a person is diagnosed with cancer every six minutes, 35 seconds in Taiwan, with men having a slightly higher chance of developing the disease, statistics released by the Department of Health (DOH) showed yesterday.
The Bureau of Health Promotion released the statistics on reported cases of cancer in 2008, which showed that 79,818 people were diagnosed with the disease that year, about 3.47 people per 1,000.
The figure of a diagnosis every six minutes and 35 seconds was 21 seconds less than in 2007, when 4,049 less people were reported to have been diagnosed with cancer, the bureau said.
The bureau said that the 2008 statistics showed that more new cancer patients are being treated and that cancer was slightly more common than in 2007. The commonest type is colon cancer, followed by cancer of the liver, lungs, breast cancer in women and oral cancer. These cancers affect more than half of all patients nationwide.
For women, breast cancer remains the most prevalent and is growing at the fastest pace, while cervical cancer rates have increased significantly, the bureau said.
Statistics show men are about 1.3 times more likely than women to develop cancer. They are also 13 times as likely to have cancer of the oral lining and 14 times more likely to get cancer of the esophagus. This is probably because men are more likely to smoke, chew betel nut and drink alcohol, the bureau said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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