LUNG CANCER FREQUENT AMONG MEN

[Anchor Lead]

Cancer can be deadly if not found early. Korea is seeing a change in cancer incidents in which lung cancer overtook stomach cancer as the most frequently occurring cancer, especially among men.

[Pkg]

This man in his 70s is being treated for stage four lung cancer. He was diagnosed when he visited the hospital after losing 12 kilograms in one month. Although he took a chest X-ray every year, doctors failed to find his cancer early.

[Soundbite] (Lung Cancer Patient(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "It didn't show up at my annual physical checkup."

Lung cancer has been the most commonly occurring cancer among men ever since it overtook stomach cancer in 2019. In terms of cancer incident projection among men, lung cancer came first in 2021 and second this year. An increase in early lung cancer detection may have been caused by the introduction of low-dose lung CT scan in 2019 for people at high risk for lung cancer. It was difficult to find early stage lung cancer with only chest X-rays.

[Soundbite] Prof. Lee Yeong-ju(Nat'l Cancer Center) : "Lung cancer diagnosis was included in the nat’l cancer detection program recently. This could have led to more discoveries of hidden lung cancer cases."

The National Cancer Center's cancer development projection for this year showed prostate cancer in first place for men and breast cancer for women. Prostate and breast cancers, most common in Western countries, are linked to increased fat intake by the Korean population. Meanwhile, stomach and colon cancer cases are gradually declining.

[Soundbite] Jung Kyu-won(Nat'l Cancer Center) : "The helicobacter infection rate has fallen dramatically. Also, known causes of stomach cancer, such as smoking and food-related risks, are all falling."

Lung cancer is likely to be this year's number one cause of cancer deaths for both men and women, followed by liver and colon cancer for men and colon and pancreatic cancer for women. It is projected that four out of 10 Koreans will develop cancer if they live to reach their life expectancy.