China the hardest hit by global surge in cancer, says WHO report

China is bearing the brunt of new cancer cases and deaths amid an alarming global rise in the disease in 2012, according to the World Health Organisation.

The country also registered the most new cancer cases and deaths from four types of malignant tumours - liver, oesophagus, stomach and lung.

The latest edition of the World Cancer Report said developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America were among the hardest hit by cancer. Overall, the world registered 14 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million deaths in 2012.

China accounted for 3.07 million newly diagnosed cases, 21.8 per cent of the global total. It also saw 26.9 per cent of the world's total cancer deaths - about 2.2 million - according to the report.

The figures were slightly lower than China's own statistics for 2012. The National Cancer Registration Centre recorded an estimated 3.5 million new cases and 2.5 million deaths annually, according to mainland media reports.

However, China was still not among the countries with the highest cancer rates in 2012, the top five being Denmark, France, Australia, Belgium and Norway. Nor was it among the countries with the highest mortality rates, which occurred in Mongolia, Hungary, Armenia, Serbia and Uruguay, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

The lack of adequate cancer diagnosis, as well as limited medical-treatment capacities in less developed countries had contributed to the problem, the report points out.