Bowel cancer has overtaken prostate cancer as the second biggest killer of men in the Netherlands, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

Bowel cancer remains the third biggest killer of women, behind lung and breast cancer, the CBS said.

Last year, 5,200 people in the Netherlands died of bowel cancer: 2,800 men and 2,400 women. In 2014, the death toll was 2014.

Most of those who died were over the age of 60 and half were at least 75 years old, the CBS said.

The Netherlands recently introduced a national bowel cancer screening programme for the over-55s. Last year, 73% of the people approached to take part went ahead with the test.

Earlier this year, the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat said the death rate from cancer in the Netherlands is the second highest in Europe. In total, 31% of deaths in the Netherlands are due to cancer, compared with 26% in the EU as a whole.