Fighting Lung Cancer: Prevalence of disease on the rise in China

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China has the highest number of lung cancer patients, and the numbers are rising rapidly. It's one of the deadliest forms of cancer, and because of that experts are trying to raise awareness. Tao Yuan has the story.

A crowded open day at Sichuan's West China Hospital shows how bad the situation is. China is the world's number one lung cancer nation. Yu Xingjiang is one of the patients - a smoker for 60 years, now recovering after a recent surgery.

YU XINGJIANG LUNG CANCER PATIENT "Nobody wants to see their parents die. When I was admitted to the hospital, everybody came, as if to say a final goodbye."

Anyone could be a target. Du Shifei is a new mother and recent graduate from one of China's top universities.

DU SHIFEI LUNG CANCER PATIENT "I thought I was going to die. My parents will have no one to depend on. My baby won't have a mother."

TAO YUAN CHENGDU "The patients here represent a larger trend. Latest figures show there are over 780-thousand lung cancer diagnoses in China annually, accounting for 36% of the world's total. 620-thousand Chinese people die of the disease every year. And worse still, the prevalence is increasing."

Zhou Qinghua is a lung cancer expert at West China Hospital.

ZHOU QINGHUA, DIRECTOR LUNG CANCER CENTER, WEST CHINA HOSPITAL "Looking back at the past three decades, the lung cancer diagnosis rate in China has increased by 465 percent. That means we're not taking control of the disease. Quite the contrary."

Experts warned the leading cause of lung cancer in China is smoking. The country's notorious air pollution is quickly becoming another major threat.

ZHOU QINGHUA, DIRECTOR LUNG CANCER CENTER, WEST CHINA HOSPITAL "Lung cancer is not scary. It's preventable, and it's treatable. But what's more important is prevention, screening, and early diagnosis. I hope one day, I won't have any patients to treat. That's my dream."

For now though, he has lives to save. Du Shifei is hopeful for a full recovery, and to see her child grow up. Yu Xingjiang may soon be able to go home. He wants to continue his car dealing business.

ZHOU QINGHUA, DIRECTOR LUNG CANCER CENTER, WEST CHINA HOSPITAL "I've cured many patients, and despaired at the many others I couldn't save. Medical science can't cure everything."

Zhou's dream of zero patients may not come true anytime soon. But he says an early diagnosis would mean a higher survival rate. And that, he says, is within reach. Tao Yuan, CGTN, Chengdu.