February 4 has been known as World Cancer Day since 2008. According to an estimate by the National Health Information Centre (NHIC) for 2018, more than 34,000 Slovaks are diagnosed with cancer every year and the number of people suffering from cancerous diseases in Slovakia is currently over 226,000. The life expectancy of these patients has been increasing in the last years, however, catching up with the figures of developed European countries and North America is a slow process. According to Peter Blaškovitš, general director of the NHIC, the trend can be improved by prevention.
As the NHIC's data indicate, cancerous diseases attack women more than men. Women are most frequently diagnosed with breast cancer, while among men the most frequent type is skin cancer. Moreover, colon cancer is one of the riskiest types for both women and men.
