National Key R&D Program of China, PUMC Youth Fund and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and Major State Basic Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Objective: To describe the cancer incidence and mortality rates in 2006 and evaluate the cancer burden in China.Methods: Cancer registration data in 2006 from 34 cancer registries were collected, evaluated and pooled to calculate cancer incidence and mortality rates. The data analyses included mortality to incidence ratio (MI), morphological verification percentage (MV%) and proportion of death certification only (DCO%). Cumulative incidence and mortality rates were calculated using crude data, age-standardized data, and specific data for cancer site, age, sex and area (urban or rural).Results: In 2006, 34 registries with qualified registration data covered a total population of 59,567,322 (46,558,108 in urban areas and 13,009,214 in rural areas). The crude and age-standardized cancer incidence rates were 273.66 per 100,000 and 190.54 per 100,000, respectively. The crude and age-standardized cancer mortality rates were 175.70 per 100,000 and 117.67 per 100,000, respectively. Cancers of lung, stomach, colon and rectum, liver, and breast in female were the five most common forms of cancer in China, which accounted for 58.99% of all new cancer cases. Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death, followed by stomach cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancer and colorectal cancer. Conclusion:Cancer is still an important public health issue in China with an increasing disease burden. Specifically, the incidence rates for lung cancer, colorectal cancer and breast cancer were increasing, but those for stomach cancer and esophageal cancer were decreasing. However, age-specific incidence rate remained stable, indicating that the aging population was the major source of the increasing cancer burden.

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The ascomycete fungus Beauveria bassiana is a pathogen of hundreds of insect species and is commercially produced as an environmentally friendly mycoinsecticide. We sequenced the genome of B. bassiana and a phylogenomic analysis confirmed that ascomycete entomopathogenicity is polyphyletic, but also revealed convergent evolution to insect pathogenicity. We also found many species-specific virulence genes and gene family expansions and contractions that correlate with host ranges and pathogenic strategies. These include B. bassiana having many more bacterial-like toxins (suggesting an unsuspected potential for oral toxicity) and effector-type proteins. The genome also revealed that B. bassiana resembles the closely related Cordyceps militaris in being heterothallic, although its sexual stage is rarely observed. A high throughput RNA-seq transcriptomic analysis revealed that B. bassiana could sense and adapt to different environmental niches by activating well-defined gene sets. The information from this study will facilitate further development of B. bassiana as a cost-effective mycoinsecticide.