Oncology news

A total of 81,541 people were diagnosed with cancer, and there were 26,944 cancer deaths in the Czech Republic in 2013. The prevalence of cancer patients reached 518,667 as on 31 December 2013, Czech Minister of Health Svatopluk Nemecek said today. There is space for further improvement in cancer care, such as the availability of cancer care in specialised centres, which varies among regions.

After many years of bad news, it seems that the Czech Republic is beginning to reap the benefits of the challenging fight against cancer. A programme of nationwide personalised invitations to cancer screening programmes has been launched, incidence trends of most cancer types – including the most common ones – have stabilised, and long-term survival rates of cancer patients have increased. Despite these encouraging facts, the Czech cancer care still faces challenges to be addressed, which might influence the lives of tens of thousands of current and future cancer patients.

The Czech Republic has become a key player in European activities focusing on the development and assessment of cancer care; the Cancer Control Joint Action (CanCon) undoubtedly belongs to the most prestigious ones. Based on the Czech information system of cancer care, the Czech Republic has been selected as a model country for the development of a Comprehensive Cancer Care Network (CCCN). This part of the CanCon project is coordinated by Prof Lucio Luzzatto from the Tumour Institute of Tuscany (Istituto Toscano Tumori, ITT), who paid a visit to Brno on 24 April 2015 not only to learn about the Czech results up to now, but also about cancer research and healthcare provided to cancer patients in the Czech Republic in general, and in the South Moravian Region in particular.

The project of personalised invitations of citizens to cancer screening programmes was launched in the Czech Republic in January 2014. Women are invited to participate in breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening; men and women are invited to participate in colorectal cancer screening. The project aims to enhance the current cancer prevention programmes, and to increase their participation rates; therefore, personalised invitations are sent to citizens who do not participate in cancer screening programmes in the long term, and thus are at a higher risk of developing cancer.