WOMEN in Shanghai suffer the highest risk for breast cancer in the country, doctors revealed at the Fourth Oncology Conference in Shanghai over the weekend.
About 60 women among every 100,000 in Shanghai suffer breast cancer, and those between 40 and 50 years old are most likely to get the disease, according to a national survey released at the conference. In Beijing, the disease hits 43 out of every 100,000 women.
Doctors blame the high rate in Shanghai on industrialization, bad diets and unhealthy lifestyles. “China has witnessed a rapid increase in breast cancer cases, which grow three percent each year,” said Xu Guangwei of the China Anti-Cancer Association. He said the disease has become the most dangerous form of cancer for urban women in China.
The number of breast cancer patients in the city has grown dramatically over the past three decades. Only 17 out of 100,000 women in the city suffered breast cancer in 1972. The number increased to 32 in 1992, then 56 in 2000, the survey indicated.
