The problematics of oncology is staying at the fore of the health problems in our republic. Every third of us falls ill with malignant tumour and every fourth dies of it. There were 37,000 malignant tumours diagnosed in our republic in 1977, in 1999 it was 59,500 and the amount is expected to increase up to 70,000 in 2004. Our results regarding the relative 5-year survival of the patients with all the oncologic diagnoses from 15 to 44 years are below European average. The most frequent tumour is lung cancer and bronchial cancer in males, breast cancer in females and the most frequent malignant tumour in both sexes is the colorectal cancer, the absolute rate of which has unambiguously the leading position. Czech republic stands at the forefront in Europe as for the incidence of all the tumours except the skin tumours. Among all the European males it is just Czech males who have a large probability of colorectal cancer. Moreover, regarding malignant renal cancer our republic is in the first position in both males and females. What do these epidemiologic dates imply? The risk of the development of malignant disease imminently endangers each of us. For Czech republic the malignant disease constitutes a big load as personal hardship and disability, increased need for hospital bed capacities and consequent increased economic costs. In 2003, the Czech oncologic society of Czech medical company of J. E. Purkyne created the National oncologic programme (NOP) of the Czech republic. Further there are named its aims, strategy and tasks. In the conclusion we mention what is the "glamour" and the "poverty" of oncology.

Keywords: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Czech Republic /epidemiology/; Europe /epidemiology/; Female; Humans; Incidence; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasms /diagnosis/