BRUSSELS
Cancer is the main cause of death for citizens in the European Union with one in four people dying from the disease, EU statistical body Eurostat has revealed.
The organization said in a report released on Tuesday that 1.28 million people died of cancer - 26.3 percent of all deaths - in 2001 in the 28-nation bloc, with lung cancer being the main fatal cancer.
While the total number of deaths showed a slight decrease, the number of deaths due to cancer increased by 6.3 percent from 1.206 million in 2002 to 1.281 million in 2011, Eurostat reported.
The number of deaths through cancer remained higher in 2011 among the male population, with 718,000 deaths, compared to that of the female population, with 563,000 deaths.
Bowel cancer, breast cancer, pancreas cancer and prostate cancer followed lung cancer sa the leading types of fatal cancer.
In the EU, cancer aas the main cause of death mostly occurred in the Netherlands with 31.9 percent, followed by Slovenia with 31.3 percent and Ireland with 30.5 percent.
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