Hong Kong women are set to overtake men in new cancer cases, government data shows
- The gap between new cases among males and females narrowed from 1,643 in 2008 to just 52 in 2018
- If the current trend persists, women will overtake men in one or two years, Dr Wong Kam-hung says
Women are on course to overtake men for the first time in new cancer cases in Hong Kong, as the number of people diagnosed with the top killer disease in the city reached a record high in 2018.
The latest statistics, released by the Hong Kong Cancer Registry on Wednesday, showed that the year-on-year rise in cancer cases was 2.9 per cent, down from the 10-year-high of 5.1 per cent recorded in the previous year. But newly confirmed cases still went up to 34,028 in 2018, meaning 93 city residents were diagnosed with the disease each day during the year on average.
Dr Wong Kam-hung, director of the registry under the Hospital Authority, said that the gap between new male and female cases, at 17,040 and 16,988 in 2018, had steadily narrowed in a decade from 1,643 in 2008 to just 52.
“If the current trend persists, women will overtake men in one or two years, either in 2019 or 2020,” he said. The figures for 2019 will be announced next year.
06:35
Man opens kitchen for strangers, letting them cook for cancer-stricken family members
Much of the remarkable turnaround was due to demographic changes and the prevalence of various types of cancer, the veteran oncologist said. The 10-year average of new male patients had stabilised, but the overall trajectory for women was still trending up.
According to official data from the Census and Statistics Department, the female population rose from 3.5 million in 2006 to 4 million in 2018, while the male population increased from 3.2 million to just 3.4 million over the same period.
