Cancer has become the leading cause of deaths in China's Beijing, and by 2020, from 2.5 million annually, the cancer-related deaths in the world's second-largest economy will balloon to 3 million per year.

Wang Ning, Deputy Director of Beijing's Cancer Prevention and Control Research Office, said the spurt in numbers was a result of exposure to environmental pollution, changing diet and more sedentary-led lifestyle. And the number of cancer-related deaths are growing in rural and urban China, albeit faster in the latter.

"In the next 10 years, the cancer burden won't be lowered - we can only hope to eventually stabilize it," he told China Newsweek over the weekend.

Beijing's smog pollution could further exacerbate the situation, which had infected tens of thousands with lung infections. The city's smog pollution reached in March the highest concentration level yet.

The city's Environmental Protection Bureau last week announced that levels of nitrogen dioxide and PM10, considered two major air pollutants, had grown considerably in the last year, jumping 30 per cent higher in the first three months of 2013 compared to a year ago.

PM10 is a particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in diameter.

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