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In January 2014, a programme of personalised invitations was launched in the Czech Republic, with the objective of inviting insured persons to cancer screening programmes; namely breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening in women, and colorectal cancer screening both in women and men. This programme aims at strengthening the current cancer prevention programmes, and to increase the currently inadequate participation of the target population in these programmes; therefore, personalised invitations are sent to citizens who have not participated in these programmes for several years and therefore at risk of developing a serious disease. The project is coordinated by the Czech Ministry of Health in cooperation with the expert medical societies involved (gynaecology, gastroenterology, gastrointestinal oncology, diagnostic radiology, general practice), representatives of health care payers, and other experts nominated by the Minister of Health. All health care payers invite their clients (insured persons) to preventive check-ups, covering all examinations needed. The project has been realised with the assistance of financial resources from EU funds. This article describes the methodology of personalised invitations which has been implemented nationwide, its data background, and the first results of the project in the first half of 2014, when almost 1.3 million Czech citizens were invited.

Introduction: Breast cancer screening based on mammography is an effective tool for lowering mortality rates from this disease. The organised and nationwide Breast Cancer Screening Programme has been underway in the Czech Republic since 2002., Material and Methods: Monitoring of the programme is based on data from the Czech National Cancer Registry (CNCR), Breast Cancer Screening Registry, and the Czech National Reference Centre (CNRC). These data sources make it possible to evaluate early performance indicators according to international standards, and to monitor the cancer burden in the Czech population. The CNRC data allow us to document the high validity of the available data as well as to map non-organised mammography examinations (so-called opportunistic screening)., Results: Until the mid-1990s, breast cancer incidence and mortality rates saw a slight but continuous increase. In the last 15 years, however, incidence rates have grown more substantially; by contrast, mortality rates have stalled and even started to decline since the 2000s. In the mid-1990s, the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stage I was below 20%; this situation has dramatically improved since then, as more than 40% cases of breast cancer were diagnosed at stage I in 2011. Breast cancer screening coverage currently amounts to 50%; this value reached a plateau in the period 2007-2008, and unfortunately has not shown any further significant increase., Conclusion: Over the last few decades, the breast cancer burden among the Czech population has been significantly reduced - despite the growing incidence rates, mortality rates have decreased, which can be largely attributed to earlier detection of breast cancer based on the screening programme. Further improvements in the programmes effectiveness can only be achieved if the population coverage becomes higher; the programme of personalised invitations to mammography examinations, which was introduced in early 2014, should contribute to the accomplishment of this goal.

Official web portals are an important component of the background information of the cancer screening programmes. They provide up-to-date and relevant information for health care professionals, the general public and those interested in preventive examinations. They also serve as an official medium for publication of individual programme outcomes. The Czech national screening programmes are presented at the following websites: www.mamo.cz (breast cancer screening), www.kolorektum.cz (colorectal cancer screening), and www.cervix.cz (cervical cancer screening).

Czech cancer screening programmes feature a comprehensive multimodal information system which covers all the levels of assessment needed - population-based monitoring (Czech National Cancer Registry), monitoring of results in the diagnostic databases of centres, as well as the quantification of coverage and outputs of primary care according to the administrative data of health care payers. A system of personalised invitations to cancer screening programmes was launched in 2014, based on a stand-alone component of the information system which makes it possible to identify eligible clients in health care payers databases. The system was fully standardised and uniformly implemented in all health insurance companies; its functionalities also involve both continuous and retrospective assessment of the results of personalised invitation. The legislative framework in force will have to be applied and implemented for a more comprehensive and integrated employment of all involved data sources, i.e. cancer registries, screening registries, and administrative data. The system must be able to analyse de-identified individual records on clients participation in screening programmes, and thus to ensure an adequate analysis of performance indicators in compliance with international recommendations.

Introduction: The nationwide Cervical Cancer Screening Programme in the Czech Republic was introduced in 2009. The aim of this article is to describe the results of this programme in the first few years after its transformation into a fully-fledged, organised programme., Material and Methods: During the first few years, a network of 37 accredited laboratories was stabilised, ensuring that examinations would be readily available across the Czech Republic. Although all women aged between 25 and 70 years fall within the target group of the current personalised invitation programme, women not in this age group are reimbursed for preventive screening examinations as well. The programme is equipped with an information support provided by the Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses of the Masaryk University, which runs the Cervical Cancer Screening Registry., Results: Cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates in the Czech Republic have seen a significant decrease over the last decade. By the end of 2013, more than 11 million examinations were reported to the registry by the accredited laboratories, and more than 15,000 serious cervical lesions were detected. Analysis of the data from the registry makes it possible to monitor the quality of individual laboratories and the effectiveness of the entire programme., Conclusion: The promising start of the programme provides a strong argument for its continuation. The program--me has the potential to decrease cervical cancer incidence rates in the Czech Republic to values comparable with those reported by countries with advanced health care systems.