UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: The cancer incidence in Osijek-Baranja county (330 506 inhabitants) increased up to 25.7% (from 1134 cases up to 1425 cases) and mortality rate up to 17.4% (from 735 up to 869 cases) in the period from 1990 to 2002. The aim for the county is to decrease cancer mortality rate by 15% by 2015. Methods: The City of Osijek League Against Cancer stated that cancer prevention should be comprehensive and include: a) change of unhealthy behaviour; b) increase of screening coverage; c) increase in the quality of palliative care; d) education of general practitioners; e) investment in equipment; f) establishment of guidelines for cancer prevention and early detection.The City of Osijek League Against Cancer and the Ministry of Health published several brochures with more than 800,000 copies (“Women and Cancer”, “Prostate Cancer”, “Colon Cancer”, “Smoking Related Diseases”) as health educational tools. Information related to cancer prevention is available on web page of the C: www.prevencijaraka.net. Results: Based on local experiences of the study on colorectal cancer with 7,592 examinees and international recommendations, the hemocult test has been accepted by the Ministry of Health as a standard diagnostic procedure in the Croatian GP services. There are annual training courses organized regularly for GPs in the county. The courses are planned according to CRISIS criteria and followed by assessment feedbacks. The experiences from the Osijek-Baranja county prevention program are accepted as a recommendation by the Ministry of Health in the creation of the national program for cancer prevention and its early detection.