Turkish health group urges for early cancer diagnosis

ISTANBUL

A Turkish health organization warned on Friday that deaths due to cancer would increase in Turkey unless the country took measures to favor access to early cancer diagnosis.

“Every year, nearly 400,000 new cancer cases arise [in Turkey] and we are facing tragic results due to a lack of early diagnosis,” said the head of the Turkish Cancer Society, Burak Duruman.

“If Turkey does not do more work on early diagnosis, we all know that this number will increase,” Duruman added.

His remarks came during a press meeting to raise awareness on early cancer diagnosis in Istanbul, according to the Turkish health group.

Duruman said that two out of three cancer patients in Turkey die within five years of diagnosis.

According to the latest data from the Turkish Health Ministry, lung and prostate cancer were the deadliest for men. For women, breast cancer was the most common fatal cancer.

One in every five men in Turkey contracts prostate cancer while one in every eight women develops breast cancer, Duruman added.

An expert on medical oncology and hematology Soley Bayraktar, said that almost 14 million people worldwide had been diagnosed with cancer in 2014.

She added that this number would almost double by 2030, reaching 27 million people.