Status: 02.02.2023 12:10 p.m
Significantly fewer cancer patients were treated as inpatients in clinics in 2021. But that doesn’t mean fewer people get sick. The decline has more to do with the corona pandemic.
During the corona pandemic, significantly fewer patients were treated in hospital for cancer. In 2021, almost 1.44 million people were hospitalized because of this diagnosis, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
Accordingly, the number of inpatient cancer treatments in the second year of Corona fell to a new low for the past 20 years. Compared to the first Corona year 2020, the number of cancer-related hospital stays in 2021 fell by 1.2 percent. Compared to the pre-Corona year 2019 with around 1.55 million cancer treatments at the time, the decrease was 7.2 percent.
According to the authority, the cause is the corona pandemic. Treatments that could be planned were postponed, and many people avoided hospital stays if they did not consider them absolutely necessary.
Fourth most common reason for treatment
Cancer remains the fourth most common reason for treatment, accounting for eight percent of all hospitalizations. The prevention, screening and treatment of cancer have improved in recent years and thus the chances of recovery, the statistical authority explained.
People between the ages of 60 and 79 are particularly likely to develop cancer. More than half of all cancer patients in 2021 were in this age group. A good fifth was between 40 and 59 years old.
The most common cause of cancer-related death in 2021 was lung and bronchial cancer. 61 percent of these deaths were in men, 39 percent in women.
Cancer deaths increased
The number of cancer-related deaths has increased over the past ten years: 229,100 people died as a result of cancer in 2021, compared to 221,600 in 2011. In general, however, the increase may also be due to the aging of the population.
The proportion of people who died from cancer in total deaths fell in the same period – and especially in the Corona years 2020 and 2021: from 26 percent in 2011 to a good 22 percent in 2021.