In Europe and elsewhere in the world, year by year cancers are posing a greater problem of public health systems. According to the Cancer Registry of Slovenia, which was founded in 1950, in recent years around 13,000 people have got cancer yearly, and around 6,000 patients have died of it.
With regard to current trends, according to the data of Slovenia’s National Institute of Public Health it is expected that among those people born in 2010 one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer up to the age of 75.
Most common types: prostate cancer in men, breast cancer in women
In recent years, men have most commonly suffered from prostate cancer (before, the most frequent type was lung cancer), and women from breast cancer. The most frequent cancer types present in Slovenia are skin cancers (except for melanoma), colon, rectal, prostate, lung and breast cancers, which account for 59% of all new cases of cancers.
The chances of survival are considerably improving for the majority of cancer patients. In Slovenia, in the period from 2006 to 2010 a five-year-survival in cancer patients amounted to 51% in men and 61% in women.
With this year’s slogan, the Association of Slovenian Cancer Societies aims at warning the country of being responsible not only for the organisation of public health system and treating cancer patients but also for taking precautions against cancer and for improving the nations’ general health.

The Council of Patients of the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana
Recently, the Council of Patients of the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana was formed as an advisory body of the management of the institute in order to ensure a systematic and continuous cooperation between the institute and the civil society. The council comprises five members who are representatives of non-governmental organisations in the field of oncology.
Besides, the World Health Organisation and the European Commission have called the governments to adopt an integrated strategy for improving health and for the control of chronic infectious diseases. Slovenia has already adopted the National Cancer Control Programme, which needs to be further supported by all those who can contribute in any way to reducing the burden of the disease.
More than half of cancers could be prevented
Almost half of cancers could be prevented by having a healthier lifestyle, receiving regular cancer screenings, as well as by living in least polluted home and working environment.
Polluted air influences the development of lung cancer
The latest researches show that polluted air contributes greatly to the development of lung cancer. According to calculations, in 2010 over 200,000 people died of lung cancer developed due to the polluted air. In Slovenia, air is mostly polluted by individual heating, as too many households have inappropriate heaters. Furthermore, people are exposed to different carcinogenic substances at the workplace. However, we still do not have an overview of how many workers hold such dangerous posts in Slovenia, so it is impossible to estimate in how many cases cancers are a result of exposure to harmful substances present in the workplace, the National Institute of Public Health publishes on its homepage.