Cancer was responsible for a quarter of the deaths registered in Malta in 2023, which rate is in line with the respective rate for Western developed and high-income countries.

This statistic emerged in a parliamentary question filed by Opposition MP Mark Anthony Sammut who asked Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela for a detailed breakdown of all causes of deaths recorded two years ago.

It transpires that in 2023, 985 persons died of cancer out of a total of 4,033 registered mortalities. A further analysis of the data reveals that the largest number died of lung cancer, accounting to 195 cases, which is strongly correlated to smoking but not always. The second highest types of causes were due to pancreatic cancer (98 cases) and intestine cancer (92 cases). Breast cancer accounted to 72 deaths. Furthermore, the were 528 fatalities listed as ‘other types of cancer).

Globally, cancer is responsible for roughly one in six deaths -about 16% to 17%. However, the rate varies from 25% to 30% in Western and developed countries down to 10-15% in poor countries due other causes of death related to the low standard of living.

Global estimates reveal striking inequities in the cancer burden according to human development. This is particularly true for breast cancer. In countries with a very high HDI, 1 in 12 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and 1 in 71 women die of it. By contrast, in countries with a low HDI; while only one in 27 women is diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, one in 48 women will die from it.

Over 35 million new cancer cases are predicted in 2050, a 77% increase from the estimated 20 million cases in 2022. The rapidly growing global cancer burden reflects both population ageing and growth, as well as changes to people’s exposure to risk factors, several of which are associated with socioeconomic development. Tobacco, alcohol and obesity are key factors behind the increasing incidence of cancer, with air pollution still a key driver of environmental risk factors.

Coming back to the situation in Malta, the second most fatal cause of deaths was related to cardiac arrest or chronic conditions that followed with 560 cases. Diseases related to circulatory system resulted in 384 deaths, while dementia which results in the patient losing memory even to do basic operations such as eating led to 333 deaths. Respiratory diseases which are correlated to poor air quality and smoking among other things was responsible for 240 deaths. Interestingly, Covid-19 caused 53 deaths in 2023 – a sharp decline when compared to the peak pandemic years of 2020 to 2022 in which it accounted to 191,209 and 202 deaths respectively.

In 2023 there were 13 cases of babies dying due to complications during or immediately after birth or even pregnancy. There was also a case of a woman who died due to complications in the period of time of up to 42 days before or after giving birth,