Reported cases of cancer have increased, with 676 more people diagnosed in 2016 than in 2015, the Health Promotion Administration said yesterday.
For all cancers in 2016, 105,832 people were diagnosed, giving an average of a new diagnosis every 4 minutes, 58 seconds — down from five minutes in 2015, the agency said in a report.
In 2016, the median age of those diagnosed with a cancer was 63, the same as the previous year, the report said.
Photo: CNA
Colon cancer was the most common type, its 11th consecutive year in that position, followed by lung cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer and oral cancer, the report said.
Rounding out the top 10 were prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, stomach cancer, skin cancer and esophageal cancer, it said.
Although the number of cancer diagnoses rose, the age-standardized incidence rate was 296.7 in every 100,000 people in 2016, down 5.3 people from the previous year, agency official Huang Chiao-wen (黃巧文) said.
Analysis of the standardized incidence rate showed that liver, stomach, skin and colon cancer diagnoses have decreased in the past few years, while lung cancer and cervical cancer increased, Huang said.
Lung cancer among women has been increasing noticeably, Huang said, adding that the trend might be because women have become more willing to have health checks.
Smoking, second-hand smoke and air pollution are key causes of lung cancer, she said.
In 2016, there were 13,488 new lung cancer cases, up from 13,086 in 2015, with almost all of the new patients being women, she said.
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