995,000 new cancer patients reported in Japan

Monitoring Desk

TOKYO: The number of people in Japan newly diagnosed with cancer in 2016 stood at 995,132, the health ministry said Thursday.

This was the first release of cancer patient numbers based on the cancer registration promotion law, which obliges all hospitals in the country to report cancer patient information. The law came into force in 2016.

The data covered everyone diagnosed with cancer in Japan in 2016, including foreigners. If multiple cancers were found in a single person, each cancer counted as one cancer patient.

The 2016 sum included 566,575 male patients and 428,499 females.

By type, colorectal cancer was found in 158,127 people, stomach cancer in 134,650, lung cancer in 125,454, breast cancer in 95,525 and prostate cancer in 89,717.

“The number of cancer patients is expected to increase for a while,” an official at the National Cancer Center Japan said, noting that baby boomers born in the late 1940s and their children are entering age groups with high cancer incidence rates.

The ministry plans to analyze the data for early disease discovery and possible reviews of the medical system.

The center said that the number of people diagnosed with cancer in Japan in 2015 rose by 24,037 from a year before to 891,445. Courtesy: (Jiji Press)