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Colorectal cancer deaths down 30% in Belgium

00:11 09/10/2015

In the last 20 years in Belgium, the colorectal cancer mortality rate has declined by nearly 30%, as it has done in more European countries, such as Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Ireland. In the Netherlands and Sweden, colorectal cancer mortality rates dropped by 17% in the same period, and in most Central and Eastern European countries they remained about the same. That's according to a report by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), writes De Standaard.

According to BMJ, the countries with lower mortality rates can thank improved screening. According to gastroenterologist and oncologist Eric Van Cutsem of UZ Leuven, the improvement has more to do with Belgium's particularly accessible health care, where it is fairly easy for patients to sign up for treatment with experimental drugs, for example.

"Furthermore, Belgium has a tradition of multidisciplinary consultation between oncologists, radiotherapists and surgeons. You sometimes hear criticism that such joint consultation leads to overtreatment. But then you see that it saves lives,” says Van Cutsem in De Standaard.

Written by Robyn Boyle