About 4,000 women in Serbia are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and more than 1,600 of them die, physician Zoran Rakocevic stated at a press conference held on occasion of the launch of the Project for Breast Cancer Screening and Prevention Capacity Improvement in Serbia.

Rakocevic, a member of the Advisory Committee for early detection and screening of breast, cervical and colon cancer, said that the statistics show that over 97 percent of women can be completely cured, but that unfortunately women in Serbia consult doctors too late when the disease has already started to spread.

The Serbian Ministry of Health formed the Advisory Committee in 2009, which is to enable and develop breast cancer screening and control the National Screening Program adopted in 2009.

Rakocevic said that the goal is to screen 1.4 million women every two years.

Within the project for breast cancer screening and prevention, the government of Japan will donate two digital and 30 analogue fully-equipped mammographs, amounting to EUR 5.8 million, which will arrive in health centers by the end of August, State Secretary of Health Nevena Karanovic stated.

She recalled that since 2004 the Japanese government has donated to Serbia medical equipment which amounts to USD 20 million, adding that 15 experts from Serbia attended seminars in Japanese hospitals in 2010.

Japanese Ambassador to Serbia Toshio Tsunozaki said that the Japanese government will equip medical institutes in Serbia is order to reduce the incidence breast cancer, and stressed that it is important to make an effort to inform the public about the importance of the screening system.