Romania, Attempting to Catch up the European Standards of Care for Cancer Patients

Abstract

Cancer is the second cause of death in Romania, following cardiovascular diseases, with lung and colorectal tumors leading in men, and breast cancer in women. Furthermore, the mortality rate for cervical cancer in Romania is the highest in Europe. Unfortunately, the majority of malignancies are diagnosed in an advanced stage of the disease. The lack of national or regional cancer registries still hampers the evaluation of health interventions. After the 1989 revolution, Romania inherited and still struggles to reform the rigid healthcare system of the former communist system, with a centralized organization, limited resources in terms of equipment and drugs, and trained but underpaid health professionals. The goal of this chapter is to describe some of the limitations and also the changes that the health system went through over the past two decades to try to reduce the disparities in cancer management outcomes.