The World Cancer Day celebrated on February 4 is held this year under the tagline 'Not beyond us'. The message is that solutions do exist across the continuum of cancer, and that they are within our reach. Vasile Jovmir, doctor at the Chisinau Oncological Institute, has told IPN that the people become more conscious when they are told about cancer, education being an important factor in the fight against this disease.

More than 8,000 new cases of cancer were identified in Moldova in 2013, when cancers caused 5,835 deaths. Over 47,000 people suffering from cancer were under the supervision of doctors in 2013. The cases of colorectal cancer represented 12.3% of the cases of cancer, of breast cancer – 11.8%, while of lung cancer – 10.5%.

Vasile Jovmir said that 70% of the cases of breast cancer are detected in women older than 50. Each third woman who goes to the Oncological Institute with breast cancer have cancer in its third or fourth stages, which can hardly be cured and often leads to death. Since breast cancer screening and different informative activities started to be staged in villages, an increasing number of women go to see a doctor. As a result, the number of cases of early detection of cancer last year rose by 4%. In several years, more than half of the cases of breast cancer could be detected in the early stages.

More than 12 million people are annually diagnosed with cancer worldwide. Some 7.6 million people die from cancer every year.