KABUL, June 18 (Xinhua) -- More than 15,000 cancer-affected patients out of total 20,000 Afghans affected with the disease lost their lives in 2018, said a statement of Afghanistan Public Health Ministry released here.

"Nearly 40,000 Afghans were suffering various types of cancer diseases, from which 15,000 had died in 2018," the statement quoted an official to ministry, Dr. Fida Mohammad Paikan, as saying recently.

In Afghanistan, breast cancer is the most common disease that has taken the lives of over 1,700 from the total of 7,000 breast cancer affected women last year, the statement added.

Thousands of cancer-affected Afghans, reportedly leave their country for medical treatment abroad mostly to Pakistan and India where they spend millions of U.S. dollars, to treat the disease.