Italian researchers have revealed an encouraging trend: cancer mortality in the EU is falling.
Carlo La Vecchia from the Department of Clinical Sciences at the University of Milan, who together with colleagues published their current study in the journal Annals of Oncology, explains: “We calculated that cancer mortality in EU Member States decreased compared to 2023 to 2018 with about 6.5 percent for men and about 3.7 percent for women Between 1989 and 2023, using 1989 cancer mortality rates as a benchmark, about 5.9 million cancer deaths were avoided in the EU.” The number of deaths from lung cancer in women in the EU now appears to be stabilizing, but remains high in women over the age of 60.
On the one hand, healthier lifestyles, improved early detection and advances in medicine reduce the risk of fatal complications from malignant tumours, on the other hand, cancer incidence is increasing as life expectancy increases. The trend towards reduced cancer mortality can also be seen in the relatively short term when comparing 2018 and 2023 (model calculation): During this period, mortality from stomach cancer in men fell by 12.66 percent, lung cancer by 10.24 percent and leukemia by 12 percent. 61 percent. Mortality from prostate cancer fell by 6.52 percent and mortality from colorectal cancer by 5.56 percent.
increase in lung cancer
In women, mortality from stomach cancer fell by no less than 18.84 percent, while mortality from lung cancer in women in the EU increased by 1.15 percent between 2018 and 2023 (leukaemia: minus 12.91 percent). Smoking continues to play the most important role here. While the fall in tobacco consumption is already affecting younger women, according to Italian experts, due to increasingly stricter restrictions in Europe, the high cigarette consumption of recent decades is apparently still noticeable among older women. Breast cancer mortality continues to fall (minus 4.63 percent). Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. For colorectal cancer, mortality in women fell by 8.7 percent.
However, men in the EU have a significantly higher cancer mortality rate than women: standardized by age, it is currently (2023) 123.75 per 100,000 and year. In women, the death rate is 79.31 malignant deaths per 100,000. Incidentally, data from Austria were not included in the study.
Source: Krone
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