With no national cancer screening programme yet in place, Malta ranks among the worst performers among the 27 EU member states in preventing cancer.
According to a European Commission report on the implementation of the EU cancer recommendations by member states, Malta and Romania are the only two with none of the three recommended screening programmes yet in place.
Back in 2003, EU Health Ministers had adopted a recommendation on cancer screening spelling out the fundamental principles of best practice in early detection of cancer. They had asked member states to take common action and implement national cancer screening programmes.
The report released yesterday examines the progress made by member states in establishing national-wide screening programmes for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer, considered to be the most common of cancers and the most preventive.
On breast cancer, the report shows that only Malta, Romania and Slovenia (which did implement one of the EU's recommended programmes) are still planning to introduce the programme.
In 2007, Malta had declared its intention to start a nation-wide breast screening cancer programme as from 2008 for women aged between 50-59 years. The programme should have been based on mammography screening every three years. However, the programme has not yet started.
The latest update came in the last budget when it was announced that a programme will be launched this year with an allocation of €700,000 for the first 12 months.
With regard to the other two EU recommended screening programmes, related to cervical and collateral cancer, the EU report points out that Malta still has no plans to implement preventive screening programmes in these areas.
On the other hand, 15 countries are already running programmes for cervical cancer and 12 member states have started screening programmes for detecting colorectal cancer.
"Unfortunately, it seems that Malta has to pull up its socks and start delivering in this sector," a Commission official said.
"Breast screening should have already started by now. It had to commence last year, however, so far, Malta is still planning the programme. We need to see progress in this field," the official said.
On a general level, the EU Executive said that, although progress has been made over the past few years on the implementation of the programmes, a lot more needed to be done.
The report's negative findings come in the wake of complaints by Social Policy Minister John Dalli that progress in the health sector is being stalled by the Finance Ministry because of lack of funds.
Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the EU and breast, cervical and colorectal cancer accounts for 32 per cent of cancer deaths in women and 11 per cent in men.
It is estimated that 3.2 million Europeans are diagnosed with cancer every year.