By Lee I-chia / Staff reporterA remark by Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, about the number of deaths from lung adenocarcinoma rising significantly last year was misleading, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday. However, Chen said that 9,338 people last year died of lung cancer, with lung adenocarcinoma accounting for 70 percent. “The figure that Han cited in the policy presentation was almost twice the actual number — a complete error,” Chen said. “The five-year survival rate significantly increased and the mortality rate is falling, so where did the claim of ‘a 7 percent annual increase in the mortality rate’ come from?” Chen said. The prevalence rate of smoking has also dropped, from 14.5 percent in 2017 to 13 percent last year, he added.
