In today's podcast, a report on survival rates of cancers in China finds prospects of successful treatment to be much lower compared to other countries.A recent report by the China Cancer Registration Center and Cancer Prevention and Control Office found a large gap in domestic survival rates versus those in developed countries.Compiled from data involving nearly 140,000 patients diagnosed between 2003 and 2005, the report showed that less than one third of patients in China survived five years after their diagnosis.Cancer patients in developed countries such as the United States have an overall survival rate of 70 percent.A large disparity was also found in the statistical breakdown between urban and rural areas.Survival rates in cities were just under 40 percent while in rural areas of China, it stands at roughly 20 percent.Zhang Siwei, an associate professor at the China Tumor Registration Center who worked on the survey, attributed the gap in domestic survival rates to the country's level of treatments and research.Zhang also outlined two major reasons behind the rates of cancer in China:firstly, in lifestyle changes brought about as a result of economic changes, and, secondly, an increase in carcinogens from environmental pollution.For Caixin Online, this is Diana Bates.
