Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - In almost every fourth death in North Rhine-Westphalia, cancer was the cause of death. In 2021, the proportion was 23.1 percent of all deaths in NRW, as the State Statistical Office announced on Thursday. Almost 51,000 people - almost 27,000 men and almost 24,000 women - died in NRW that year as a result of cancer.
The number of cancer deaths in NRW has therefore remained fairly constant in recent years: in 2020 there were almost 52,000 people, in 2011 around 51,500 people.
According to the statistics office, the most common type of cancer from which people died in NRW in 2021 was a disease of the digestive organs (men: 31 percent, women: 28 percent). Lung cancer or other cancers of the respiratory organs or chest died in 26 percent of the men and 20 percent of the women. The third most common cause of cancer-related death was a malignant neoplasm of the genital organs in men (12 percent) and breast cancer in women (17 percent). Saturday is World Cancer Day.
