BEIJING (AFP) — A growing number of Chinese women contract breast cancer as a result of a more Westernised diet and more stressful lifestyles, state media reported Tuesday.

Out of China's 630 million women, 200,000 get the disease every year, and 40,000 eventually lose their lives, the China Daily said, citing the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association and the Breast Cancer Prevention Fund.
 

The rising trend is particularly pronounced in China's largest city Shanghai, where 60 out of every 100,000 women now have the disease, up from 17 per 100,000 in 1972, the paper said.

Although nutrition for millions of Chinese has improved as incomes have risen, diet-related health problems also have spiked due to increasingly sedentary lifestyles and growing consumption of western-style fatty foods.