Greece’s national “PROLAMVANO” prevention program will resume on October 13, becoming a permanent national health policy funded through national resources.
The relaunch comes in October, which is dedicated to breast cancer awareness and prevention. During the month, insured and uninsured women will be able to receive free mammograms and breast ultrasounds.
The program will subsequently expand to preventive screening for cardiovascular diseases.
The process is designed to be straightforward. People who have activated Greece’s electronic prescription service will receive their referral documents by free SMS. Everyone else can schedule an appointment using their AMKA, Greece’s social security identification number, through the proliptikes.gov.gr platform or through Mobile Health Units operating in the regions.
More than 554,000 people identified with findings
Deputy Health Minister Eirini Agapidaki, speaking to Greek television station MEGA, said the results of the program so far demonstrate the importance of preventive care.
“More than 554,000 citizens have been identified early with findings through the programs for the diagnosis of breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer and cardiovascular diseases,” she said.
In the first phase of the program, more than 6,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer at an early stage.
In addition, 1,536 men and women were diagnosed with colorectal cancer, while 12,635 people were found to have precancerous lesions.
Polyp removal procedures were also carried out on 17,500 people. Overall, the number of people identified with precancerous lesions or who underwent polyp removal exceeded 30,000.
Cervical and cardiovascular screening
A further 93 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer, which the report said highlights the effectiveness of free HPV vaccination in preventing the disease.
For cardiovascular diseases, approximately 350,000 people were identified early with findings, while nearly 1,200 people needed to undergo immediate angioplasty, which saved their lives.
The program emphasizes the benefits of early diagnosis, as people whose diseases are detected through preventive screening have significantly higher rates of complete recovery because their conditions are identified at an early stage.
