Majority of EU citizens die from cancer

EU: every second death from cancer or chronic diseases

18/09/2012

About half of the deaths in the European Union are caused by cancer or chronic diseases. This is the result of a study by Dutch, Belgian and German researchers, in which more than four million death certificates were evaluated by EU citizens.

„The aim of this study was to determine the number of people in Europe who are striving for cancer and chronic diseases“, Not least to assess the impact of demographic change and regional differences, the research team around Jeroen Hasselaar Radboud University Medical Center (Nijmegen, Netherlands) reported in the journal „BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care“. In the evaluation of the four million death certificates, the researchers found that about every second death is due to cancer or a chronic disease. They also registered significant differences between Member States.

More than four million deaths have been investigated among EU citizens
In collaboration with scientists from the University Hospital Gasthuisberg Leuven (Belgium), the University of Bonn, the Malteser Hospital Bonn / Rhein-Sieg and the University of Göttingen, Jeroen Hasselaar had analyzed 4.1 million death certificates of deceased persons from 27 EU Member States. Most death certificates came from 2007, in a few cases from 2006 or 2004. The researchers hypothesized that „Due to the aging of the European population, non-acute deaths are expected to increase.“ Indeed, chronic diseases and cancer have been the leading causes of death across Europe. According to the international team of researchers, around two million of the four million deaths reported are due to such a non-acute cause of death.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in the European Union
About a quarter of the four million deaths evaluated were due to the results of the researchers, due to tumor diseases. This makes cancer the number one cause of death in the EU. Chronic heart disease (such as coronary heart disease) is the second most common cause of death among EU citizens, accounting for about five percent of deaths. Other non-acute causes of death include chronic lung disease, liver disease with subsequent liver failure, and diabetes, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia. However, there were marked differences between the individual EU states, write Jeroen Hasselaar and colleagues in the article „The burden of non-acute dying on society: dying from cancer and chronic diseases in the European Union.“

Regional differences in the mortality rate
According to the results of the international team of researchers, deaths from chronic diseases and cancer were the most common in terms of total deaths in Bulgaria, Denmark and Hungary. Chronic diseases and tumors were least likely to be involved in deaths in Ireland, Slovakia and Cyprus. In general, it can be observed that in the affluent countries chronic diseases and cancer are more often the cause of death, which researchers attribute to better medical care. People are getting older and with age the risk of chronic diseases or the probability of a tumor increases, write Hasselaar and colleagues. However, why the Eastern Bloc countries are so far ahead in cancer despite a lower aging of the population, the researchers could not explain. There is a suspicion that this may be related to the higher environmental impact - possibly even with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster - but the scientists around Jeroen Hasselaar have made no statement.

Deaths from chronic diseases and cancer will continue to increase
Altogether, the scientists calculated for chronic diseases and cancer a mortality rate of 409 deaths per 100,000 EU citizens. In Germany, this is 442 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants - well above the EU average. The relationship between the average age and mortality from chronic diseases or cancer becomes particularly clear when looking at data on EU citizens aged 65 and over. For them, the researchers calculated a mortality rate of 1,783 deaths per 100,000 people from non-acute diseases. This more than threefold exceeds the EU average for the total population. According to Jeroen Hasselaar, as the average age of demographic change increases, deaths from chronic diseases and cancer will continue to increase.

Improve care of patients with chronic diseases or cancer
Their study results illustrate the significance of chronic diseases and cancer in future deaths in the EU and what burdens are to be expected for society, write Hasselaar and colleagues. It is also becoming clear how important the care of patients with chronic diseases and terminal cancer is. Millions of Europeans are already affected today and a further increase is foreseeable in the future. Future research should therefore bring the information gained to bear on the frequency of certain symptoms and the use of palliative care services, the researchers concluded. Also, the European politicians are invited to „regional differences in the development of long-term and short-term palliative care strategies“ to take into account. (Fp)

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