Hong Kong has made significant progress in reducing cancer-related mortality over the past three decades, health officials announced during the World Cancer Congress held in the city last week. Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau highlighted that the age-standardised cancer death rate in Hong Kong has fallen by more than 40 percent since tracking began in 1983, with an average annual decline of 2.8 percent for men and 1.7 percent for women over the past decade.
Despite these gains, experts emphasized that improving early detection and expanding cancer screening programs remain critical to further reducing mortality rates. Since 1983, the number of newly diagnosed cancer cases in Hong Kong has more than doubled to approximately 38,000 annually, yet the risk of dying from cancer has nearly halved, with the latest age-standardised death rate recorded at 71.1 per 100,000 people in 2023. This rate ranks among the lowest in developed economies.
The improvements have been attributed to access to advanced treatments, including targeted therapies and immunotherapies, particularly for lung cancer, which remains the most prevalent and lethal cancer in the city. Professor Tony Mok Shu-kam, a clinical oncologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, noted that although survival rates have improved, over half of new lung cancer cases in 2023 were diagnosed at stage 4. He stressed the importance of shifting toward earlier detection through surgery and leveraging artificial intelligence technologies to reduce diagnostic costs and reliance on radiology specialists.
Hong Kong’s comprehensive cancer control strategy, first introduced in 2019, focuses on prevention efforts such as tobacco and alcohol reduction alongside enhancing screening programs. The government has implemented organized screening for cervical cancer since 2004, colorectal cancer since 2016, and phased breast cancer screening beginning in 2021 and continuing into 2025. Screening initiatives have led to more than half of detected cases being found at early stages, yet challenges remain. In 2023, over 50 percent of colorectal cancers and more than 20 percent of breast cancers were still diagnosed at advanced stages (stage 3 or 4).
Dicky Chow Ka-chun, assistant research director at Our Hong Kong Foundation, pointed to cultural and systemic barriers as factors limiting wider screening uptake. According to recent population health surveys, only half of eligible women had undergone cervical cancer screening, well below the World Health Organization’s recommended target of 70 percent by ages 35 and 45. Chow called for a cultural shift toward greater personal responsibility for health and increased use of primary care services rather than specialist consultations alone. He urged the government to strengthen primary healthcare networks and foster public-private partnerships to facilitate screening accessibility and demonstrate parity in care quality.
As Hong Kong continues to combat cancer, experts agree that early diagnosis through community-based screening remains indispensable to saving and extending lives. The upcoming results from the 2025-26 population health survey will provide critical data to assess the effectiveness of ongoing cancer control efforts and guide future policy.