Cyprus holds the unwanted record of the highest shares of deaths due to breast cancer among the sole female population in EU member states, alongside Malta, according to information released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union on the occasion of the World Cancer Day, February 4.

Across Member States, the highest shares of deaths due to breast cancer among the sole female population were observed in Cyprus and Malta (both 21% of all deaths due to cancer for women), Luxembourg (20%) and Belgium (19%), while the lowest was recorded in Estonia (12%), ahead of the Czech Republic, Poland and Sweden (all 14%).

In a communiqué on Thursday, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) – a membership organisation in the fight against cancer, reports that cancer will kill more than eight million people worldwide this year, which is equivalent to the entire population of New York. Half of these will be people of working age (30-69 years old).

Under the campaign theme, ‘We can. I can.’, UICC says World Cancer Day represents a unique opportunity to draw attention to what can be done to address cancer, save millions of avoidable deaths and, in turn, support global economic growth and development.

With ‘We can’, the UICC urges corporations to focus their business on products and services that improve public health, and governments to urgently reaffirm their commitment to cost-effective cancer ‘essentials’ packages that save lives. Such as the implementation of vaccination programmes which prevent infections that cause cervical and liver cancer, the scale-up of access to early detection and screening programmes for cervical, breast and bowel cancers and follow-on treatment, improved tobacco taxation, regulation and control, as well, as pain relief and palliative care services for all cancer patients.

Under ‘I can’, UICC also calls on individuals to take responsibility for reducing their own cancer risk. Simple measures such as stopping smoking, eating less red and processed meat, exercising regularly and reducing alcohol use can extend a healthy life, and must be seen as the first-line of defence against cancer and other associated non-communicable diseases.

According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, cancer was the cause of death for almost 1.3 million persons in 2013 in Europe, responsible for just over a quarter (26%) of all deaths. Men (726,500 deaths due to cancer) were more affected than women (570,300). In addition, fatal cancer represented more than a third (37%) of all deaths for the EU population aged less than 65, while this level was below a quarter (23%) for the older population (those aged 65 years and over).

Leading to the death of nearly 270,000 persons (or 21% of all deaths due to cancer), lung cancer was the main type of fatal cancer in the EU in 2013, followed by colorectal cancer (153,100 or 12%), breast cancer (92,600 or 16% for the female population only), pancreas cancer (81,300 or 6%) and prostate cancer (72,700 or 10% of all fatal cancers for the male population only).

Breast cancer killed more than 92,000 women in the EU in 2013. While it can also concern men, breast cancer primarily affects women, for which it represented in 2013 the most common fatal cancer, accounting for 16% of all deaths due to cancer among the female population in the EU (92,600 deaths).