Croatia marked World Cancer Day with a conference at the Public Health Institute

Each year, around 27,000 people are diagnosed with cancer, and 13,000 die from the disease. 

Mario Šekerija, director of malignant disease at the Croatian Institute of Public Health, said that among men in Croatia, the most common new cancer diagnoses are in the prostate, lungs and colon; while among women, the diagnoses are in breast cancer, colon and lungs.

At the same time, the director of the institute, Krunoslav Capak said that over the past five years Croatia has "seen an increase in the survival rate from cancer from 54 to 59 percent compared to the previous five-year period. This means that more and more people are being diagnosed on time."

For her part, Health Minister Irena Hrstić underlined that the ministry will actively work to increase the number of preventive examinations and, therefore, the early detection of cancer.

Currently, there are 187,000 people in Croatia are living with a cancer diagnosis.