One out of Four Koreans Died of Cancer Last Year

162 people died of cancer every day last year as cancer remained as the No. 1 cause of death in Korea. Lung cancer was the most frequent killer, in particular, raising an alarm for a nationwide anti-smoking campaign.

According to the survey on “Causes of Death in 2001” released by the National Statistical Office on September 26, as many as 59,000 Koreans, 24.2% of the total number of the diseased last year, succumbed to cancer last year. Cardiovascular diseases came in second at 35,000, followed by heart diseases at 16,000 and diabetes at 11,000. The four most fatal diseases accounted for 50.4% of the total.

* Lung Cancer, No. 1 Killer for Second Straight Year

Lung cancer, which was the leading cause of death in 2000, also topped the rank last year, as 25 per 100,000 populations died of the smoking-related disease last year.

Following lung cancer, cancers of the stomach (24 out of 100,000), the liver (21.3), the colon (9.6), the pancreas (5.9), the uterus (5.7), the prostrate (2.7) and the breast (2.5) cancer also recorded high mortality rates. While the mortality rate of stomach cancer, which had been the No. 1 cause of death until 1999, was down sharply, those of colon, pancreas, breast and prostrate cancer increased from the year-earlier period.

123.5 per 100,000 died of cancer last year, up 18.3 from the last ten years’ average of 105.2. The figure, however, was lower than 238.8 in Japan and 200.5 in the U.S.

Other than cancer, cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, heart failure and hypertension were leading causes, taking 120.8 lives out of 100,000, despite the downtrend in number.

32.8 succumbed to respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and bronchitis, while 30.1 died of alimentary diseases such as liver failure and ulcer. 12.1 died of infection or vermination.

* Mortality Highest among Men in 40s

More men died than women across the entire age groups. In particular, three times as many men as women died in the forty something group. 406 out of 100,000 men in their 40s were diseased in comparison to 137.7 among women.

They are especially vulnerable to liver illnesses, the No. 5 cause of death. Liver failure was the second cause of death among men in their 40s. Korea was the most vulnerable member country of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) when it comes to liver-related diseases, with the mortality rate for such illnesses higher than those in Hungary (57.3) and Mexico (43.2).

Among the young aged under 30, many were killed in car accidents. The traffic accidents were second cause of death among people in their 30s as well. Although the traffic accident mortality rate was down by 17.2 to 21 from a decade ago, it still ranked high on the sixth place. The rate was the highest among OECE members.

Meantime, the number of deaths from suicide soared 70% to 15.5 from a decade ago.

Jeong-Hun Park sunshade@donga.com