Over 400 years of cancer control efforts in Poland

The history of the struggle against cancer in Poland is presented from its beginning, marked by the first hospital for cancer patients established four centuries ago in Warsaw, to the implementation of the main goal of National Cancer Programmes, i.e., the recent construction of a large, modern Cancer Centre in Warsaw. Among the 100,000 new cancer cases each year in Poland, there are more than 70,000 deaths. In males, cancers most often involve the lung (30.5%), stomach (9.8%), larynx (5.5%), prostate (5.1%), and urinary bladder (5.0%). In females, cancers most often involve the breast (17.5%), cervix uteri (9.8%), lung (6.6%), stomach (6.2%), and ovary (6.2%). The estimated probabilities of five-year survival are 26.4% for males and 39.8% for females. Over 100 years of epidemiologic investigation have resulted in a clear epidemiologic picture of cancer in Poland.