BEIJING -- Medical experts called for increased efforts to develop cancer-related medicine and improve the availability of new drugs in China as the 19th World Cancer Day was observed on Feb 4.

The five-year survival rate for patients with cancer in the United States has increased by 41 percent since 1975 thanks to new therapies, including the use of new drugs, according to a report issued by the drug research and development committee of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.

It said that 83 percent of the increase in lifespan was attributed to the use of new therapies.

However, the availability of new drugs in China falls behind some developed countries, it said. Only six of 49 types of new drugs were available in China between 2010 and 2014.

Shen Lin, deputy head of Beijing Cancer Hospital, said at the publication ceremony for the report that there has been no effective chemotherapy medicine to treat esophageal cancer in more than 30 years in China.

Zhao Yan, deputy president of the oncology medical department of Novartis China, called for joint efforts by governments, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals to develop new drugs.

China has taken measures to improve the availability of new cancer-related drugs over the past two years.