From next year, new mandatory preventive examinations for breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men will be introduced. The change is included in Ordinance 39 of the Ministry of Health. All women between 50 and 69 and men over 50 will be subject to preventive examinations. The reason is that there is an increased frequency of both diseases after 50. Breast and prostate cancer are among the most common oncological diagnoses in women and men, respectively. According to data from the National Center for Health Information, a total of 275.5 men per 100,000 suffered from prostate cancer last year, and 44.1 per 100,000 fell ill. Among women, a total of 1,163.9 per 100,000 fell ill with breast cancer. 100,000, and 94.7 per 100,000 became ill. Therefore, from 2011, women will have to undergo a mammogram and men will have a PSA test. In this way, the possibility of catching these diseases at an early stage and treating them more easily and qualitatively will increase. The studies will be part of the regular preventive examination at general practitioners. They will be free for people with regular health contributions and will be covered by the National Health Insurance Fund. The research will be done once every two years. Until now, both tests, mammography and PSA test, were ordered with a referral from the general practitioner as a highly specialized medical-diagnostic test from an “imaging” package on an as-needed basis. The change was introduced after a proposal by the NHSOC to include research in the preventive program with the aim of early detection of diseases and successful application of more therapeutic options. However, the request of the NHIF covered women from the age of 40.
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