About a quarter of Israeli deaths are caused by cancer, according to a Central Bureau of Statistics report published on Wednesday, 4 Teves. According to the report, which covers the common causes of death in Israel for 2016, 11,077 Israelis died in the same year as a result of the disease. The second most common cause of death is heart disease,15% of the cases, which is 6,399 Israelis. Only 4% of deaths were caused by traffic accidents, suicides and homicides.

In 2016, 43,966 civilians died in Israel, representing 0.5% of Israel’s population in that year. 49.4% of those who died were men, while 50.6% were women. 81% of those who died were over age 65 (of which 66% were over the age of 75 and 38% were over the age of 85). 6% were under the age of 45 and 1.3% – infants up to one year old.

Additional circumstances of death mentioned in the report: Infectious diseases, representing 5.8% of the number of deaths in that year; diabetes and brain events – 5.2% for each category.

Since the beginning of the 1980s there has been a significant drop in mortality rates from heart disease, similar to the trend in the Western world. Mortality rates from cancer have been volatile over the years, but the overall trend is a moderate decline. In the late 1990s, cancer became the leading cause of death, while heart disease became the second most common cause of death.

Mortality rates from infectious diseases have increased in the past decade, placing them third on the prevalence scale. The main cause of death from the infectious disease group is septicemia, and in the past decade it accounts for 80% of all infectious diseases that cause death.

Another significant change in trend is the mortality rate following brain events, which have declined in recent decades since the 1970s.

Breast cancer – the leading cause of death among women
92.6% of the men who died in 2016 died of cancer, as did 74.1% of the women. The most common cancers among men were bronchial trachea and lung cancer (24.1% of all deaths from cancer), rectal and colon cancer (11.2%), and pancreatic cancer (9.1%).

The most common cancers among women were breast cancer (20.9% of all cancer deaths), bronchial trachea and lung cancer (11.7%) and rectal and colon cancer (10.8%). Among men, the third most common cause of death was infectious disease (5.7% of deaths) followed by all external causes (5.6% of deaths). Among women, the third most common cause of death was infectious diseases (5.9% of deaths) followed by cerebrovascular diseases (5.6%). Causes of death externalities unrelated to morbidity were fourth among men and eighth among women.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)