Cancer Mortality in the European Union (eu)

Past twenty years proved to be favorable for the health of European population: people have lived longer because of better nutrition and health care. Unfortunately, cardiovascular disease, the previous principal cause of mortality was surpassed by malignancy that became the primary health threat. In order to express the human and social impact of malignancy in different parts of EU, this review focuses on premature mortality at 0-64 years of age, the productive years of life, for cancer. There is a remarkable difference in population malignancy between established European democracies and the post communist countries previously subjected to Soviet rule. In general, there is more malignancy in countries of the former Soviet bloc. Hungary has an unfortunate distinction to have the highest mortality from several types of cancer. It is possible that the proto-oncogenes responding to adverse environmental influence, respond to higher prevalence of smoking, alcohol, fatty meat intake and lower ingestion of protective nutrients in Eastern Europe.