Early diagnosis of cancer can save millions of lives. It also increases the chances of successful treatment. Turkey's Ministry of Health has been offering free cancer treatment all over the country and thanks to cervical, colon and breast cancer screenings, 78,767 people have been able to receive cancer diagnosis.
Starting from 2012, the ministry has been monitoring citizens for cancer in mobile and permanent cancer diagnosis centers free of charge. In 2018, the ministry scanned almost 7 million citizens who were then able to obtain their results online in just 10 days.
So far, the ministry scanned 4.5 million people for cervical cancer and almost 200,000 people were diagnosed positively. 33,813 people were diagnosed in the early stages.
Since 2016, 1.7 million people have been scanned for breast cancer and 30,144 people were diagnosed earlier than most patients.
On the other hand, more than 5.5 million people have been scanned for colon cancer since 2011 and almost 250,000 people's tests came through positive. Of these patients 14,810 were lucky enough to be diagnosed early.
With the active cancer recording system that the ministry started in 1992, all cancer cases are collected and clinical and pathological indicators are documented to determine the "cancer map" of Turkey.
The first report was published in 2002 and starting from 2013 Turkey Cancer Statistics Report is published every year to see the frequency of cancer diagnosis in Turkey's different areas.
According to these reports, the most frequently seen cancers in Turkey are lung, prostate, colon and stomach cancers in men and breast, thyroid, uterine and lung cancer in women. The reports suggest that the leading factors of cancer diagnosis are 90 percent environmental while 10 percent is genetics.
