Every fourth death from cancer

One in four deaths from cancer

03.02.2011

Among the leading causes of death in Germany, the malignant cancer tumor ranks fourth. People who contract cancer usually die 6.7 years earlier than others. This was announced by the Federal Office of Statistics in Wiesbaden today.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, a cancer reduces the life expectancy of a patient by about 6 years and 7 months compared to the average of the population. According to the data collection, patients with cancer die on average with 73.6 years of age. This is about 6.7 years earlier than the overall average of the population. Over a quarter of a million people (216,128, 2009) died of cancer. The gender distribution of deaths was almost balanced. 116,711 men and 99,417 women died. In total, 854,544 people died in 2009. This is 1.2 percent more than in the previous year. The most frequent causes of death were due to cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks.

The most common cause of death was lung cancer
Significant changes are not observed, said Silvia Schelo of the statistics office. Neither have the numbers increased nor noticeably dropped. For years, there have been no noticeable changes. The most common cancers with fatal consequences were lung cancer or bronchial cancer. Both diseases are among the most commonly diagnosed cancers. Almost 43,000 people died of bronchial or lung cancer in 2009. At a ratio of 1:10, smoking is still the main cause of lung cancer. Especially older people die from cancer. Only a quarter of all deceased were younger than 65 years. In the middle years between 45 and 65 years of age, cancer was the leading cause of death. About 41 percent of deaths were due to cancer.

Small differences in the sexes
Minor differences in the sexes were observed in the cancers. Malignant neoplasm of the lungs and bronchi was the leading cause of death in 29 133 cases (7.2% of all deaths), followed by cancer of the prostate in 12 217 cases (3.0%). In women, the most common cause of cancer death was breast cancer with 17 066 cases (3.8%), the second most common being lung and bronchial cancer with 13 088 cases (2.9%).

About 1.5 million inpatient cancer therapies
In 2009, nearly 1.5 million people in Germany were hospitalized for cancer. The proportion of men outweighed slightly, accounting for a total of 6 813 728 patients. In contrast, a total of 682,361 patients had to undergo medical treatment. 39.3% of cancer patients were between 25 and 65 years old. The most common cancer diagnosis in women was breast cancer, in men lung cancer. (Sb)

Picture: Günter Havlena