Pandemic a Likely Reason for Drop in New Cancer Cases for First Time in 2 Decades

The Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society Jockey Club Cancer Rehabilitation Centre holds a press conference of April 25, 2022. The JCCRC is a nursing home registered with the Department of Health which provides integrated Western and Chinese medical services for cancer patients. Sung Pi-lung/The Epoch Times

Cancer is the number one killer among Hong Kong citizens. According to the latest “Overview of HK Cancer Statistics of 2020“ released by the Hong Kong Cancer Registry (HKCaR) of the Hospital Authority (HA), there were 34,179 new cancer cases in Hong Kong, that is, an average of 94 people were diagnosed with cancer every day. It is a decrease of 903 cases compared with the previous year and is the first time the number has fallen in nearly two decades. However, this decrease in number, according to the registry’s analysis, may be related to the reduction of early screening and diagnosis taken by the people during the pandemic, when crowd movement was seriously restricted.

Statistics show that in the first quarter of 2020, at the beginning of the outbreak, the number of new cancer cases dropped the most, with a decrease of 13.8 percent compared with the same period of previous years. The director of the registry, Dr. Harry Yiu Ho-yin, said that the same phenomenon of fewer new cancer cases in the early stages of the pandemic is also recorded in Australia, Denmark, Spain, and the United States.

However, compared with 10 years ago, the number of new cancer cases still soared by nearly 30 percent, with a year-on-year increase of 2.6 percent. Although the overall cancer population grew slowly, with a year-on-year growth rate of 0.6 percent during the same period, the group aged 65 or above saw an annual increase of 4.2 percent.

Lung Cancer as the Number One Killer

Statistics also show that the five most common cancers in Hong Kong in 2020 are lung cancer (15.9 percent), colorectal cancer (14.9 percent), breast cancer (14.6 percent), prostate cancer (6.8 percent), and liver cancer (5.1 percent). These five major cancers account for over 57 percent of all new cancer cases in Hong Kong.

As for the most lethal cancer, lung cancer (26.4 percent) ranked top, followed by colorectal cancer (15.4 percent) and liver cancer (10.3 percent), which together accounted for more than half of all cancer deaths. Pancreatic cancer (5.5 percent) and breast cancer (5.1 percent) ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

The cancers that cause the most deaths in men are lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and liver cancer, accounting for 57 percent of all cancer deaths; whereas in women, the cancers that cause the most deaths are lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer, accounting for half of all cancer deaths.

In addition, for the first time, women outnumbered men with cancer diagnoses. The “crude cancer” incidence rate per 100,000 population in 2020 was 489 for men and 430 for women. Compared with 2019, the number of male cases decreased by 982 (5.6 percent), while the number of female cases increased by 79 (0.5 percent).

Women Aged 20-64 Have Higher Cancer Rates Than Men

Statistics specifically pointed out that among adults aged 20-64, the proportion of women suffering from cancer is higher than that of men of the same age, mainly due to gender-related female cancers, such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, uterine cancer, and ovarian and peritoneal cancer, which have relatively higher incidence rate. Among them, in the age group of 20-44, the number of new cancer cases in women is 1.5 times higher than that in men of the same age.

But the statistics show that when the effects of differences in the age structure of the population were removed, overall cancer incidence in men “appears to be levelling off” over the past 10 years, while the incidence in women has trended upward. In addition, the risk of dying from cancer for both men and women in Hong Kong showed a significant downward trend, falling by 2.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. In other words, the risk of dying from cancer for both sexes in Hong Kong shows a significant downward trend.