Cancer prevention should be expanded

Cancer prevention is to be expanded: Bavarian Health Minister Markus Söder has called for an expansion of cancer screening. In the state parliament, the CSU Minister pleaded for people belonging to the risk groups to be invited to participate in cancer screening in the future.

In Bavaria, cancer prevention will be further expanded in the future. For example, Bavarian Health Minister Markus Söder advocates that potentially vulnerable people be invited to the early detection of cancer in the future. Currently, according to the Minister, such early detection programs are not sufficiently used. Only one out of every two women over the age of 20 and one in five men over the age of 45 are taking advantage of the investigation, even though it comes at no cost. However, that is fatal, so Söder, because cancer, which is diagnosed in time, can be effectively combated. About half of all cancers can be treated if it has been detected early during a check-up. The Ministry of Health in Bavaria is currently creating the legal basis for a „invitation issue“ to realize early detection for colon cancer.

It is also important to improve the early detection of skin cancer. In such an investigation, the so-called skin cancer screening is performed. Söder now wants to achieve that age limits for the prevention of skin cancer is reduced from the current 35 to 25 years of age. The sometimes rigid age limits should also be lifted for other cancers such as breast cancer or colon cancer. It is important that insured perform the free investigations.

Every second death in Bavaria is preceded by cancer. „Every year, around 55,000 new cases of cancer occur in Bavaria, in which around 30,000 people die“, informed the Ministry of Health. Each year around 220,000 patients are treated for tumors in the hospitals of Bavaria. (sb, 06.10.2010)