The number of new cancer cases in Taiwan has continued to climb, with 725 more people diagnosed in 2020 than in 2019, according to the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) on Thursday.
Taiwan recorded 121,979 cancer diagnoses in 2020, slightly higher than the 121,254 reported in 2019, figures released in an HPA report showed.
The increase meant one cancer diagnosis was made every 4 minutes and 19 seconds on average in 2020, while the median age for a cancer diagnosis stayed at 64.
Although colorectal cancer continued to top the list of most common cancers for the 15th consecutive year, with 16,829 patients diagnosed in 2020, the administration said its number declined slightly by 416 from 2019.
This was followed by lung cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, oral cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, stomach cancer, skin cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma rounding out the top 10.
According to the HPA, the number of cancer patients by age–standardized incidence rate was 336.2 for every 100,000 men — a 9.2 decrease compared with 2019 — and 292.8 in every 100,000 women — a year-over-year increase of 0.1.
Split by sex, 63,893 of the 121,979 diagnoses made in 2020 were male and 58,086 were female.
Colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and oral cancer were the most common types of cancer among males, with breast cancer, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer the three most common types among females.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel