Malignancies are the second most frequent cause of death in Croatia, and figures for 2019 show that more than 25,000 people were diagnosed with cancer that year, while 13,500 died, the Croatian Public Health Institute said on Friday, on the occasion of World Cancer Day.

In the European Union, Croatia has the second highest cancer death rate, and in persons under 65, cancer is the most frequent cause of death, causing more than 40% of deaths.

The most prevalent types of cancer in men are prostate, lung and colon cancer, while in women the most frequent types are breast, colon and cervical cancer.

A year ago Croatia adopted a national strategic framework against cancer and patient associations recently launched campaign called “It’s time”, aimed at bringing together the most important stakeholders in the healthcare system to encourage them to implement that document so as to improve cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

According to global health statistics on cancer (GLOBOCAN 2020), the number of newly diagnosed cancer patients in 2020 reached 19.3 million globally while the number of those who died of cancer grew to 10 million.

This year’s World Cancer Day aims to raise awareness of the need to eradicate inequality in access to healthcare due to place of residence, ethnic background, socioeconomic status, age and other characteristics.

Inequality in access to healthcare is present almost everywhere, both in high- and in low and middle-income countries.