Prague, July 20 (CTK) – Most Czech men, or 67 percent, fear cancer, but only a quarter of them go to preventive oncological examinations, Filip Hruby, from the Sanofi firm for which Millward Brown conducted the poll in May, told reporters yesterday.
“Three out of four million Czech men ignore oncological prevention,” Hruby said.
However, according to experts only 3-5 percent of men seek regular preventive check-ups.
Men in the poll admit that they do not consider prevention important, they feel healthy or do not know about prevention possibilities.
A new project of the “STK for Men” endowment of Petr Koukal would like to change it.
Koukal, 30, a Czech professional badminton player, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2010 and underwent a successful therapy.
Only 25 percent of Czech men over 50 go to prostate cancer screening once a year or more often and 38 percent undergo colon and rectum cancer screening every other year or more frequently. Nineteen percent of men over 18 perform a testicular self-examination every month and 21 percent say they go to skin cancer check-ups once in five years or more often.
Fifty-three percent of men say their GPs do not inform them on the importance of preventive examinations.
“The figures from the poll clearly show the men’s stance on the care for their health. We want to change this. We will succeed when they care for their health like for their cars,” Koukal said.
Koukal was operated on for a testicular tumour at the aged of 24 and then underwent chemotherapy. He returned to his sport career after the treatment. He will participate in his third Olympic Games in Rio in August.
Men can meet his endowment representatives at music and sport events from June to September. They will offer to them free preventive prostate and testiclesscreening as well as cholesterol and increased blood sugar level tests of there.
The endowment intends to address at least 20,000 men in the contact campaign.
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