Czechs are reluctant to go for cancer screening, worried that doctors will find evidence of a tumour during a preventive examination, said experts at a meeting hosted by the Embassy of Sweden in the Czech Republic earlier this week. However, they noted, they should seek prevention, because earlier detection of a tumour is more likely to lead to successful treatment.
The recovery rate for early-stage prostate cancer is almost 100%, while for lung cancer, 70% of patients with stage 1 tumours survive five years after diagnosis.
Refusing prevention is not a rational decision, said Ola Bratt, professor of urology at the University of Gothenburg. There are feelings involved, he said. In Sweden, men of a given age are approached by a special office by letter for a preventive examination; about 40% of them come in after the first notification. For a similar invitation to women for lung cancer prevention, 80% of the recipients respond, he said.
Similarly, health insurance companies in the country have been inviting people for colorectal cancer prevention and women for breast and cervical cancer screening since 2014. Depending on the type of screening, 20 to 25% of those contacted respond after the first letter. Experts say the effectiveness of repeated calls is low, so they are considering text messages, emails or alerts on health insurance apps.
In the Czech Republic, about 65% of men over 50 have had a blood test to detect prostate cancer. Every year, about 8,000 men are diagnosed by their doctors. “A third of cases are detected late,” said Ondrej Majek of the National Screening Centre. The aim of the screening, which began this year, is to give regularity to previously random testing. “Our idea is to move testing to a younger age,” he said.
So far this year, more than 75,000 men have had their blood tested by a general practitioner or urologist, and health insurers are covering the tests if they are between 50 and 69. According to Roman Zachoval, head of the Urology Clinic at the 3rd Medical Faculty of Charles University and the Thomayer University Hospital in Prague, a large proportion of them were men in their fifties.
For lung cancer prevention, doctors are reaching out to current and former smokers aged 55 to 74 in screening. There are an estimated 300,000 such people in the Czech population. Approximately 22,000 have been approached by GPs since 2022, about half of whom have declined further investigation.
“Only one in five lung cancer patients is diagnosed in time to be operated on and successfully treated,” said Majek. While 70% of early-stage tumours survive for five years, about one in ten patients survive late-stage cancer.
