Common cancers: statistics and symptoms
Lung cancer
Statistics Smoking causes up to 90 per cent of Hong Kong's lung cancer cases with one in 10 smokers expected to develop the disease some time in their lifetime, according to the Hong Kong Cancer Fund. There were 4,135 new lung cancer cases in 2005 of which 2,730 were male and 1,405 were female, according to the latest available figures from the Hospital Authority's Hong Kong Cancer Registry. Lung cancer was the No1 killer among men and women, the figures showed, with a total of 3,686 people dying from the disease in 2005, of which there were 2,503 deaths among men and 1,183 among women. Symptoms For lung cancer, symptoms include a persistent cough, shortness of breath, coughing up blood stained phlegm, chest discomfort and loss of appetite and weight, according to the Hong Kong Cancer Fund. The risk of getting Hong Kong's most common form of cancer heightens substantially after the age of 50, though the younger a person starts smoking, the higher the risk of getting it. Passive smoking could also be a cause, but that risk is lower than that of smokers, the Hong Kong Cancer Fund said.
Breast cancer
Statistics Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women and the third most fatal in Hong Kong. In 2005, there were 2,307 new breast cancer cases and 460 breast cancer deaths among women, according to the Hospital Authority's Hong Kong Cancer Registry. Symptoms In 90 per cent of women, breast cancer is picked up as a lump in the breast, though there are other signs to watch out for. For the breast, that includes change in its size or shape, dimpling of the skin and thickening of the breast. For the nipple, symptoms include blood-stained discharge, rash on the nipple or surrounding area, an inverted nipple and its thickening. Women should also look for swelling in the armpit, the Hong Kong Cancer fund said. Nine out of 10 breast lumps are benign with most of these lumps typically cysts comprising either sacs of fluid, which build up in the breast tissue, or a collection of fibrous glandular tissue. All benign breast lumps can be treated easily. The Hong Kong Cancer Fund said men could also develop breast cancer but this was 100 times less common than in women.
