Cancer now number 1 cause of death in Dutch women

In 2016, 149.000 inhabitants of the Netherlands died. Most people died from cancer and cardiovascular disease, namely 30 percent (45.000) from cancer and 26 percent (39.000) from cardiovascular disease. In 2016, for the first time, more women died from cancer than from cardiovascular disease. This is evident from a new analysis by Statistics Netherlands.

Cancer is an increasingly common cause of death

In 2016, 72.200 men and 76.800 women died. For more than ten years, cancer has been the highest cause of death in men. In 2016, for the first time in women, cancer has outnumbered cardiovascular disease. In 2016, 20.700 women died of cancer and 20.500 of cardiovascular disease. In that year, 24.500 thousand men died of cancer.

Number of deaths from cardiovascular disease decreased

The total number of cancer deaths shows a stable, trend-based growth. Since 1970, the number of cancer deaths has increased by 10 thousand in both men and women. There has been a decline in the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease since 1970, which mainly occurred in the period 1995–2010.

Highest mortality from lung cancer

Since 2007, lung cancer has been the highest cause of cancer mortality among women. In the last twenty years, the number of women who died of lung cancer has more than doubled, from 1.900 in 1997 to 4.400 in 2016. In 2016, lung cancer accounted for 21 percent of cancer mortality among women. Breast cancer accounted for 15 percent of cancer deaths, and 12 percent died from colon cancer.

A quarter of men who die of cancer die of lung cancer. Both colon cancer and prostate cancer kill 11 percent.

Relatively less cancer mortality

Although the absolute number of cancer deaths is increasing every year, it is decreasing in relative terms. When population growth and aging are taken into account, cancer mortality has fallen since the late XNUMXs. The decrease mainly occurred in men. In women, the decrease is small, mainly due to the increase in lung cancer mortality, which is related to the smoking behavior of a few decades ago. Standardized mortality from cardiovascular disease has been falling since the early XNUMXs.