Oncology news
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A special issue of Klinicka onkologie (the official journal of the Czech Society for Oncology), published in December 2014, is dedicated to the assessment of cancer prevention efforts and results in the Czech Republic. A team of authors not only described the current situation in cancer prevention programmes in the Czech Republic, but also pointed out weak spots in cancer prevention efforts.
Over the last 15 years, the Czech Republic has been closing the gap on Western Europe in terms of 5-year survival rates in selected cancer types, and nowadays is significantly beyond the average of other post-communist countries. The latest results from the international study CONCORD-2 have again confirmed this trend.
A new study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialised cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), shows that nearly half a million new cancer cases per year can be attributed to high body mass index (BMI).
A compact description of cancer care in the Czech Republic was presented at the ESMO 2014 Congress in Madrid, Spain. The Czech Society for Oncology and the Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses of the Masaryk University worked together to highlight the alarmingly growing cancer burden of the Czech population, to explain the current National Cancer Control Programme and ongoing cancer screening programmes, and to comment the latest survival rates of Czech cancer patients.
The global cancer burden is on the rise, warned IARC at the beginning of 2014. The Czech Republic is no exception: cancer incidence rates are growing in our country, too. But where does the Czech Republic rank among other European countries (or even globally) in terms of cancer burden?
Earlier this year, two studies analysing survival rates of cancer patients in the Czech Republic and across Europe were published [1, 2]. Survival rates of cancer patients belong to key parameters in terms of evaluation of cancer care outcomes, and of fulfilling the National Cancer Control Programme. The good news from both studies is that outcomes of the Czech cancer care have improved in most diagnoses: both in terms of time trends, and when compared to other European countries. However, there is much space for improvements in cancer prevention efforts as well as early diagnosis of less advanced stages; and last but not least, the availability of cancer diagnosis and treatment in individual regions of the Czech Republic needs to be further improved.
Smoking is one of the most important known risk factors for cancer. Most European countries are well aware of this fact, and have adopted various measures aimed at decreasing the number of smokers among the population, which should not only improve the population’s state of health, but also save costs for treatment of smoking-related diseases. Unfortunately, international studies and comparisons have shown that the Czech Republic is miles apart from those countries.