Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde Tuesday issued the stark warning that "cancer is currently China's top killer" and vowed to improve monitoring of the deadly disease.

Wang told the 26th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Cancer Registries, which opened Tuesday in Beijing, that cancer was to blame for 24 percent of the urban deaths in China last year and 21 percent of rural fatalities.

Cancer's mortality rate rose by 29 percent from the 1970s to 1990s in China, he said.

Wang stressed the importance of cancer registration, a common international practice to stop the spread of the disease.

"It is important to establish a related national information system to find the origins and monitor the development of this serious disease," he added.

China currently has just 50 cancer registries scattered across more than 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, covering a population of 75.3 million, accounting for 6 percent of the country's total.

The Ministry of Health last year issued a cancer prevention and control program for 2004-2010, which aims to establish a unified cancer database.

"So far, 26 cancer registries have reported statistics for the years between 1998 and 2001 to the National Centre for Cancer Registries," Wang said.

Cancer, heart disease and diabetes are currently the nation's biggest health problems, Vice-Premier Wu Yi told the ongoing 55th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Western Pacific Region.

Statistics show that lung and breast cancer have been the leading killer of Chinese men and women since 2000.

A decline in the number of cases of oesophageal and stomach cancer in the five years, has been offset by an alarming increase of lung cancer cases in China among both sexes.

The ministry is now working closely with the WHO to develop a policy framework to meet the growing challenge of chronic disease control.

The IACR 2004 Congress involves 210 participants from 40 countries or regions, including the United Kingdom, Egypt and France.

It is the first the congress has been held in China.

"The meeting is a good chance for China to share cancer prevention and control experience with other nations," Wang said.

(China Daily September 15, 2004)