The parliament on Tuesday unanimously adopted the National Anti-Cancer Strategy for the period until 2030, with is aimed at advancing the comprehensive monitoring, prevention and treatment of malignant diseases.

The document, which received the support of 127 lawmakers, contains unified measures for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention as well as optimising health care for oncology patients.

Cancer is the leading public health problem in Croatia, as it is in the entire European Union, and it is estimated that there are 170,000 people in Croatia who have suffered or are suffering from cancer.

The number of people with cancer in the world and in Croatia is constantly growing. The World Health Organisation estimates that the number of new cases in the world will increase from 18 million in 2018 to 29.5 million in 2040, while the number of cancer-related deaths could increase from 9.5 million to 16.4 million a year.

Next to cardiovascular diseases, cancer is the second most common cause of death in Croatia and it accounted for 27% of fatalities in 2018. Cancer is the leading cause of death in people younger then 65 and is the cause of 50% of deaths in women and 35% in men.

The majority of lawmakers also adopted a report on the implementation of the Declaration on the status of the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2019 that was presented to the parliament last week by the foreign ministry.