THE RATE OF deaths from lung cancer increased in the years spanning 2002 to 2011 in Ireland – going from 19.6% to 21.3% of the rate of total fatal cancers.

Deaths from colorectal cancer have stayed the same (12%), deaths from breast cancer have dropped very slightly (from 8.1% to 8.0%), deaths from pancreas cancer have increased from 5.2% to 5.5%; and deaths from prostate cancer have dropped from 7.2% to 6.5%.

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The new statistics from Eurostat show that the number of deaths in the EU28 due to cancer increased by 6.8% over the past 10 years, at a slightly higher pace for females (+6.6%) than for males (+6.0%).

A quarter of all deaths were due to cancer in Europe in 2011, making it responsible for the deaths of 1.281 million people.

However, the number of deaths due to cancer remained higher in 2011 among the male population (718 000 deaths due to cancer) than among the female population (563 000).

Lung cancer was the main type of fatal cancer (20.8%) in the EU28 in 2011, followed by:

• Colorectal cancer (11.9%)
• Breast cancer (7.2%)
• Pancreas cancer (6.1%)
• Prostate cancer (10.2%)

Cancer was (in 2011) the cause of more than 30% of deaths in:

• The Netherlands (31.9%)
• Slovenia (31.3%)
• Ireland (30.5%)

It represented less than a fifth of all causes of death in Bulgaria (15.6%), Romania (19.1%) and Lithuania (19.9%).

At least a quarter of deaths were due to cancer in seventeen Member States in 2011.

Cancer represented almost a quarter (23.8% or 936 000 persons) of all causes of deaths for people aged 65 and over in the EU28 in 2011.

The highest numbers were seen in:

• Slovenia (28.8%)
• Ireland (28.4%)
• The Netherlands (28.3%)
• Denmark (27.6%)
• The United Kingdom (27.2%)

They were the lowest in Bulgaria (12.3%) and Romania (15.2%).

Cancer represented more than a third (37.1%) of all causes of death for those under 65 in 2011. Hungary has the highest proportion of both fatal lung cancer and colorectal cancer.

The highest proportion of fatal prostate cancer was seen in the Nordic member states – Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

For the full statistics for the EU28 and cancer, see Eurostat.

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