The global significance of China's cancer burden and control effort.

The relationship between growing economic development and increasing cancer burden has been well recognized (1). Following three decades of economic development with unprecedented speed, the overall cancer mortality in China was estimated to have increased 83%, lung cancer mortality in particular rose 465% (2). With nearly 1.4 billion population, China plays a significant role in the global cancer burden and cancer control effort. However, accurate assessment of China’s cancer burden was difficult, due to lack of a population-based cancer registry system in China, until recent years.