The agency's GLOBOCAN 2024 dataset, which covers 34 cancer types across 186 countries and territories, puts Vietnam's annual new cases at 177,404. It counts 404,153 people living with a diagnosis made within the previous five years.
Against roughly 100,000 new cases 16 years ago, incidence has risen 59% and deaths about 35%.
Deaths equal 63% of new diagnoses. That runs far above the 35-40% typical of the U.S., U.K. and Japan, where cancers are caught earlier, said Do Anh Tu, deputy director of K Hospital and chief of office of the Vietnam Cancer Society, at a July 31 conference on cancer prevention in Ho Chi Minh City. Many patients are diagnosed only after tumors have spread, he added.
Men accounted for 85,748 of the new cases but 63,167 of the deaths, a mortality-to-incidence ratio of 74%. Among women the figure was 52%.
Vietnamese men are diagnosed most often with lung, colorectal and liver cancer, while breast and thyroid cancer lead among women.
