The office for cancer screening saves lives
Serbia is among the European countries with a high cancer mortality rate. There are 40,000 new cases of cancer registered in Serbia every year, while around 21,000 people die from malignant diseases. Serbia is placed 12th according to the number of people sick with cancer, and according to the mortality on the second place in Europe, according to the data from the Institute for Public Health of Serbia ``Milan Jovanović Batut“, which clearly show the necessity of larger involvement in prevention and early discovery of cancer.
There was a system of opportune screening in Serbia, until 2013 (citizens submitted themselves to checkups at their own initiative – there were no precautionary measures in the form of the call for checkups), but there was no systemic program of targeted checkups which would decrease the level of mortality from malignant diseases and prevent their appearance with healthy people.
The so-called opportune screening included only 20% of the population potentially suitable for the breast, cervical and colon screening programs. The main problem was, and still is, not being familiar with the risky ways of behavior and the lack of use of positive experiences of the EU in the implementation of prevention and the program of early discovery of malignant diseases.
With the support from the European Union, Serbia has received a National Screening Office (www.screeningserbia.rs) which coordinates the efforts in order to battle the three most frequent types of cancer. This office, which was founded within the Institute for Public Health „Milan Jovanović Batut“, directs the professionals included in the screening programs and maintains the database on screenings in accordance with the international standards of public health.
Numerous trainings have been organized for health workers who are included in the screening programs within the project. During the realization of the project, implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia, around 500 health workers (radiologists, radiography technicians, cyto-technicians, cytopathologists and gastroenterologists) have completed the necessary courses, which gave them the required training for working in the area of early cancer screening. Fifty experts from the county institutes and public health institutes have been trained for working with doctors in primary health protection on the methods of early cancer discovery.
Having been conducted all across the country, this was one of the most successful projects of the health system in Serbia, given the fact that the NCSO was founded as a centralized institutions for gathering data concerning the number of cases of people diagnosed with malignant diseases and has been working successfully ever since then.
At the same time, in order to raise awareness of citizens, a media campaign has been carried out with the basic message that the citizens be included in organized checkups after being called by their doctor.