The long-delayed national cancer strategy plan that was promised three years ago will finally come to life next month, according to Health Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar. The plan was given the go-ahead by the French national cancer institute, which had been liaising with the Maltese government on the project, Dr Cassar said.

The government had published the consultation document on the strategy in July 2007 and had promised to finalise the plan by the end of 2009. It would now be officially launched next month during a visit by a delegation from the French institute, Dr Cassar said.

He was speaking during an event organised by the Health Promotion Department to mark World Cancer Day yesterday.

Every year, 12 million people around the world are diagnosed with cancer - of these about 1,300 are Maltese.

Treatment had improved immensely over the past years and doctors were no longer speaking about five-year survival rates but had extended it to 10 years, Dr Cassar said.

The focus was placed on prevention and early detection to help reduce the mortality rate. For example, smoking led to lung cancer, high alcohol consumption led to liver and stomach cancer and these were all things that could be avoided, he said.

Last year, Malta was slammed in an EU report as one the worst performers in the EU in terms of cancer prevention programmes, especially because it did not offer cervical and colorectal cancer screening.