The availability of medicines in Croatia is better than in other EU countries, but as far as cancer treatment is concerned, the situation is much worse, which is why it is important to raise awareness of cancer prevention, a conference was told in Zagreb on Saturday.

The conference, called “Fight & Win”, was organised by Croatian MEP Sunčana Glavak on the occasion of World Cancer Day.

The fight against cancer is one of the key topics in the European Parliament, given that this disease can be prevented in 40 per cent of cases, and Croatia is following the EU’s Beating Cancer Plan which is focused on prevention and early detection of the disease, the conference said.

The European Union has directed about €170 million to care for cancer patients. “This time we do not have to ask questions whether there is money or not. There is money, we have it, we only need to use it well,” Glavak said.

Glavak commented on the current figures showing that Croatia is better than other EU member states in terms of the availability of medicines, while the situation is worse when it comes to cancer treatment. “Not all EU countries are equally developed and have the same health systems, but we need to see how we can make a step forward,” she said.

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of death in Croatia and in the EU, but there are differences in the number of patients per capita in individual countries. In Croatia, the most frequent types of cancer are prostate, lung and colorectal cancer in men and breast, lung and colorectal cancer in women, and in the case of breast cancer the death rate has been reduced by 25 per cent thanks to screening practices.

“When you receive that envelope at home, do not put it aside,” Glavak warned, drawing attention to the poor response to national screening programmes and the importance of raising awareness of prevention.

Attention was also brought to the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre as an opportunity for Croatian professionals to better connect and work on a Europe-wide exchange of data.

Health Minister Vili Beroš said that his ministry is “painfully aware” of the level of oncological problems in the Croatian population. “The main idea and specific goals of the health reform, which we need to implement, is to increase prevention and early detection. We are fully aligned with the European cancer plan,” he said.

He mentioned the success of the national breast cancer prevention programme and the poor response of men to screening programmes for the prevention of colorectal cancer.