Vietnam now ranks 78th out of 172 countries surveyed in terms of new cancer patients, according to a recent report by the National Cancer Hospital.
For every 100,000 people in Vietnam, 140 people are diagnosed with cancer, compared to the world average of 182 new cancer cases per 100,000 people, the report said.
The statistic places Vietnam on a list of group-3 countries, those with new cancer diagnoses of between 135 and 178 per 100,000 people.
Significantly, the report identified cancer as being more common amongst Vietnamese men than women, with 173 out of 100,000 men diagnosed with cancer compared to 118 for every 100,000 women.
According to the National Cancer Hospital, the disease is more common in developed countries, though there has been noticeable growth in new cancer cases in poorer countries.
The economic burden of six of the most common cancer types in Vietnam – liver, breast, cervical, colorectal, oral, and stomach cancer – is estimated to cost the country over US$1 billion a year, health officials said last year.
Seventy-five percent of cancer patients in Vietnam reportedly die only a short time after their initial diagnosis, according to a 2016 study conducted on 1,200 cancer patients across the country by the Sydney-based George Institute for Global Health.
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