Pop singer Yao loses battle with cancer

Chinese pop singer Yao Beina, who sang the Chinese version of the theme song Let It Go from the Disney movie Frozen, died on Friday in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, after losing her battle with breast cancer at the age of 33, local media reported.

Born in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, on Sept 26, 1981, Yao was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 and soon after had her left breast removed.

After seeming to recover from the disease, she made a comeback in the entertainment business, and her popularity received a boost from the reality talent show The Voice of China in 2013.

In 2013, Yao posed naked for a magazine to raise readers' awareness of breast cancer. She told the magazine the scar left from her surgery was "cool" and "like a medal that only belongs to me".

Yao was rushed to the intensive care unit of a Shen-zhen hospital on Thursday after a relapse of the cancer suddenly worsened, Yuan Tao, general manager of Yao's label, Huayi Brothers Music, said on Friday.

The singer died at 4:55 pm on Friday. In accordance with her wishes, Yao's father signed a consent form on Jan 9 to donate his daughter's corneas, Yuan said.

Local media reported that the cancer had spread to Yao's brain and lungs.

While Yao's fans may find it difficult to accept the sudden death of a singer who was young and beautiful, a breast cancer expert warned young women to be aware of the dangers of breast cancer and said that it is not as curable as many people think.

"Only 60 to 70 percent of breast cancer patients can be cured completely in Western countries, and the proportion in China is 50 to 60 percent," said Jiang Zefei, a breast cancer expert at Beijing No 307 Hospital.

He said an increasing number of young women get breast cancer because of unhealthy lifestyles and work stress.

The average age of breast cancer onset in China is 10 to 15 years younger than in the West, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology in 2014. The Lancet is one of the world's oldest and best-known general medical journals.

As in most countries, breast cancer is now the most common cancer in Chinese women.

He Na contributed to this story.

cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn