Articles

27. 10. 2015 Cancer in the older population of the Czech Republic

Population ageing has become a challenge to cancer care in developed countries. Particularities of the older population must be taken into account when considering cancer treatment. However, there is a lack of consensus on guidelines for this population due to the underrepresentation of older patients in clinical trials.

15. 1. 2014 Personalised invitations of Czech citizens to cancer screening programmes

In January 2014, a project of personalised invitations for cancer screening programmes was launched in the Czech Republic. In particular, citizens are invited to participate in colorectal cancer screening (men and women), as well as breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening (women). Personalised invitations are aimed at citizens who have not participated in cancer screening programmes in the long term, and therefore are at a higher risk of developing cancer. The project is expected to increase participation rates in Czech cancer screening programmes.

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Vaccinating girls and boys against human papillomavirus (HPV) prevents the development of several serious cancers and protects human lives

As in most developed European countries, a vaccination programme against HPV has also been introduced in the Czech Republic. HPV vaccines are reimbursed from the public health insurance if the first dose is administered between ages 13 and 14. Both girls and boys can be vaccinated under this scheme.

As for girls, HPV vaccination has been reimbursed since the 1 April 2012. The vaccination programme was extended in August 2017 to cover boys as well (by Draft Amendment to Act No. 290/2017 Coll.). The above-mentioned age interval applies to both sexes, effective from 1 January 2018.

In the spectrum of current options for cancer control, HPV vaccination actually presents a groundbreaking and unique way of preventing many serious cancers such as cervical, vulvar, anal, penile or vaginal cancer, but also oropharyngeal cancers. Approximately 150 types of HPV have been described so far, out of which about 40 affect the genital area; HPV is therefore considered to be most common sexually transmitted infection worldwide. The currently available vaccination provides a protection against the human papillomavirus, thus representing a highly effective prevention tool, which addresses the very cause of cancer development.

In the Czech population, this health issue has serious consequences on cancer epidemiology, as confirmed by the latest statistics on HPV-positive cancers, which show a steadily growing trend. In the Czech Republic, the annual incidence of HPV-associated cancers is up to 2,440 new cases (out of which almost 900 are diagnosed in men) and the prevalence (i.e. the number of persons living with the disease or its history) is more than 27,500 persons (out of which 4,900 are men). With the exception of cervical cancer, where the ongoing screening programme has contributed to a decrease in incidence, the number of HPV-positive cancer cases has been growing by 3–5% each year and, moreover, the condition also affects relatively young people. These increases in incidence have been reported in the age category as young as 30–35 years.

The press conference will sum up the availability of HPV vaccination in the Czech Republic and present the latest data on HPV vaccination coverage. The analysis of data on HPV vaccination that was reimbursed from the public health insurance shows that the HPV vaccination coverage in girls aged 13–14 reached 65% in 2017; however, considerably different rates have been reported for individual regions of the Czech Republic, ranging from 50% to 80%. The latest available data, which cover the period 2016–2017, do not allow to quantify the HPV vaccination coverage in boys, who were included in the existing vaccination scheme (i.e. reimbursed from the public health insurance) only in January 2018. In the period 2016–2017, HPV vaccination was only reimbursed for dozens of boys aged 13–14. Data on HPV vaccination paid by clients themselves are not available and the latest population-wide estimate of HPV vaccination coverage in girls aged 13–14 is therefore partially biased. However, even this estimate shows that there is still much space for improvement in this prevention effort. For this reason, it is certainly worthwhile to inform citizens on the benefits of HPV vaccination, which should ideally lead to an increase in the participation rate in the programme of reimbursed HPV vaccination.

Presentations available for download

Annex No. 1 – Availability of HPV vaccination in the Czech Republic and in international comparison ( PDF file, 206 kB)
Annex No. 2 – Latest available data on HPV vaccination coverage of the Czech population ( PDF file, 786 kB)
Annex No. 3 – Epidemiology of HPV-related cancers in the Czech population ( PDF file, 1.7 MB)

Individual slides of all three presentations, which are suitable for on-line viewing, are available below.

Annex No. 1: Availability of HPV vaccination in the Czech Republic and in international comparison	HPV vaccination in EU member states (report from 2015)	EU member states without an HPV vaccination programme (report from 2015)	Overview of vaccines against HPV that are available in the Czech Republic (J07BM)
Annex No. 2: Latest available data on HPV vaccination coverage of the Czech population	Data source: the new National Health Information System (NHIS)	Overview of NRHZS data: total number of patients with reimbursed HPV vaccination	Overview of medicinal products used for HPV vaccination
Proportion of vaccinated patients in relation to population size (2017)	Proportion of vaccinated patients in relation to population size (2017)	Annex No. 3: Epidemiology of HPV-related cancers in the Czech population	3.1: Summary overview
Epidemiological overview of HPV-related cancers: absolute numbers	Epidemiological overview of HPV-related cancers: numbers per 100,000 population	HPV-related cancers: summary	3.2: Tabular and graphical summaries for individual cancer types
Epidemiological trends for cervical cancer (C53) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – absolute numbers	Epidemiological trends for cervical cancer (C53) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – numbers per 100,000 women	Epidemiological trends for cervical cancer (C53) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – tabular summary	Epidemiological trends for cervical cancer (C53) in the Czech Republic: age structure
Epidemiological trends for vulvar cancer (C51) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – absolute numbers	Epidemiological trends for vulvar cancer (C51) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – numbers per 100,000 women	Epidemiological trends for vulvar cancer (C51) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – tabular summary	Epidemiological trends for vulvar cancer (C51) in the Czech Republic: age structure
Epidemiological trends for vaginal cancer (C52) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – absolute numbers	Epidemiological trends for vaginal cancer (C52) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – numbers per 100,000 women	Epidemiological trends for vaginal cancer (C52) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – tabular summary	Epidemiological trends for vaginal cancer (C52) in the Czech Republic: age structure
Epidemiological trends for anal cancer (C21) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – absolute numbers	Epidemiological trends for anal cancer (C21) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – numbers per 100,000 population	Epidemiological trends for anal cancer (C21) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – tabular summary	Epidemiological trends for anal cancer (C21) in the Czech Republic: age structure
Epidemiological trends for penile cancer (C60) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – absolute numbers	Epidemiological trends for penile cancer (C60) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – numbers per 100,000 men	Epidemiological trends for penile cancer (C60) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – tabular summary	Epidemiological trends for penile cancer (C60) in the Czech Republic: age structure
Incidence trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in the Czech Republic	Prevalence trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in the Czech Republic	Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – absolute numbers	Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – numbers per 100,000 population
Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – tabular summary	Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in men in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – absolute numbers	Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in women in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – absolute numbers	Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in men in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – numbers per 100,000 men
Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in women in the Czech Republic: incidence, mortality and prevalence – numbers per 100,000 women	Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in the Czech Republic by sex: incidence, mortality and prevalence – tabular summary	Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in men in the Czech Republic: age structure	Epidemiological trends for selected head and neck cancers (C01, C02, C04–C06, C09) in women in the Czech Republic: age structure