Given the current state of pollution in China, there is a projected increase in the prevalence of lung cancer over the next five years. China is projected to have around one million lung cancer patients in 2025, with one person dying from the disease each minute.

Senior respiratory disease specialist Liu Deruo warned the public of an epidemic getting out of hand, state-owned China Daily reported. Liu, who is also the head of the thoracic surgery department of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, identified factors such as ageing, air pollution and tobacco use as the main culprits of the epidemic.

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Meanwhile, according to the Time, China has more lung cancer diagnoses and fatalities than any country in the world. Every year, there are 600,000 recorded fatalities and around 700,000 Chinese are diagnosed with the disease this year.

The number of cases has been increasing as the country's air pollution gets worse. More so, China remains the top consumer of tobacco products in the world. A separate study last year estimated that one in three young Chinese men will die of tobacco-related illness. This may be the case, however, experts believe that pollution will replace smoking as the primary cause of lung cancer.

According to Zhi Xiuyi, head of the Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center at Capital Medical University in Beijing, the accelerating increase of lung cancer will last for at least 20 years.

Another study published in a U.S. medical Journal, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians revealed that in 2015 alone, there were 2.8 million recorded deaths of lung cancer, making lung cancer the most common type of cancer in China. That means an estimated 7,500 deaths are happening on a daily basis. Although researchers pinned pollution as the main cause, they are still looking for enough evidence to establish the link.

TagsLung Cancer, most common type of cancer, increase number of lung cancer patients, china health, China's pollution, smoking