Croatian success in early breast cancer detection: favorable news in Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Breast cancer is the third most common malignant cause of death in women in Croatia, preceded by lung and colorectal cancer. According to the last available data, in 2017 breast cancer was diagnosed in 2767 patients (rate 132.1/100,000), and in 2019, 752 women died from the disease (rate 35.9/100,000). However, the number of deaths has been steadily decreasing for four years in a row (2,3). If we compare the Croatian estimates with those from the European Union (EU-27) countries, we can see that Croatia is near the EU-27 average according to cancer burden (15th out of 27 countries; 14th in men and 19th in women) and fifth according to cancer mortality. However, when we look only at breast cancer estimates, the situation is much better; standardized breast cancer mortality rates for Croatia are below the EU-27 average (16th out of 27 countries) (1). Although the majority of breast cancer cases are not preventable, it is crucial to make the diagnosis at an early stage, when more than 90% of women can be cured. Mammography screening remains the best and widely validated method of early detection of breast cancer, despite its shortcomings and the emergence of other imaging modalities with high diagnostic accuracy