The director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, said on Monday that a new screening test would be introduced for early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) in order to improve a turnout for such tests.

Currently, the turnout for this national programme of early screening is at a low 32% of those who are invited to undergo testing.

Th existing programme covers citizens aged between 50 and 74.

The institute’s director noted at a conference held on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the national early screening programme for CRC detection that regular screenings help detect CRC in its earliest, most curable stages.

Doctor Neven Ljubicic, who chairs the commission for coordinating the implementation of the current programme, said that the new cycle of screening starts in 2024 and new kinds of tests will be applied.

New tests will be of higher quality and more sensitive, he said. They have helped also other countries to raise the turnout for screening by 20%.

Ljubicic notes that Croatia registers 2,300 deaths related to colorectal cancer annually.

He also warns about other risk factors for appearance of this disease and explains that in Croatia 22% of citizens are cigarette smokers, 10% are alcohol addicts and 23% of the population is obese.

In Croatia, up to 3,600 new patients are annually diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and of them 60% are men and 40% are women.

Capak said that the HZJZ institute intensively works on primary prevention of prevention of noncommunicable chronic diseases and has early screening for several types of cancers (breast, CRC, cervical and lung cancers) .

It will also soon introduce early screening tests for detection of melanoma, prostate cancer and abdominal cancer.