Time trends of cancer incidence in urban Beijing, 1998–2007

OBJECTIVE: To report the time trends of cancer incidence in urban Beijing from 1998 to 2007. METHODS: All data were obtained from Beijing Cancer Registry from 1998-2007 in urban Beijing. Time trends of incidence rate of cancer were assessed by annual percentage change (APC) of age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) of world standard population during this 10-year period. RESULTS: For all 156851 cancer cases combined, the incidence rate rose in both males and females, with an APC of 2.23% and 3.74%, respectively. The incidence rate of upper gastrointestinal cancers declined significantly, with an APC of -2.83% in esophageal cancer and -1.37% in male gastric cancer, while lower gastrointestinal cancer, such as colorectal cancer, increased with an APC of 4.08%. The rates of kidney and bladder cancer increased with an APC of 7.93% and 5.57%, respectively. For women, the APC continued to rise in breast cancer (4.98%), ovary cancer (6.16%), cervix uteri cancer (11.74%), corpus uteri cancer (6.96%) and thyroid gland cancer (13.39%). The rate of prostate cancer among men increased with an APC of 8.58%; the rate of lymphoma and leukemia increased with APC of 5.48% and 5.44%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Because of population aging and urban modernization, the cancer burden in Beijing has become more and more severe and similar to the western developed countries.