Alarming study reveals Bosnia cancer mortality far exceeds EU average

Findings presented at a conference in Sarajevo on Monday show that cervical cancer mortality in the country is two and a half times higher than the EU average. Furthermore, death rates from colorectal cancer are 66 percent higher, whilst breast cancer mortality is 45 percent higher.

The research into cervical, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers was conducted between 2025 and 2026 across the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, Republika Srpska entity, and the Brcko District. The project was backed by €900,000 in European Union funding and $110,000 from the United Nations. Later in the briefing, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to BiH Adebayo Babajide noted the EU had provided a total of €1 million to conduct the research.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Dubravka Bosnjak, Bosnia’s Civil Affairs Minister, stated that the high mortality rates do not indicate that the disease is more aggressive domestically. Instead, she attributed the figures to a lack of prevention and early detection.

The Minister highlighted that organised screening programmes, the gold standard of preventative medicine in the EU, do not exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead, the country relies on opportunistic or random screening, meaning patients generally seek medical intervention only after symptoms appear. Statistics show that up to 70 percent of cancer patients in the country delay seeking help until symptoms develop, which is often too late for successful treatment.

The report also identifies wider structural failures within the domestic healthcare sector, including a lack of integrated information systems and registries, shortages of medical staff and diagnostic capacity, and insufficient protocols, equipment, and standards. To address these deficiencies, the EU is set to invest €11.5 million through an IPA III project starting next year to bolster prevention and cancer control programmes.

Adebayo Babajide emphasised that better policies and improved preventative frameworks could save thousands of lives, noting that approximately 40 per cent of cancer cases are preventable.

Justine Coulson, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative for Bosnia, provided weekly mortality figures to illustrate the scale of the issue. Across the country, 21 people die each week from colorectal cancer, 11 women die from breast cancer, nine men die from prostate cancer, and three women die from cervical cancer, a disease she noted is almost entirely preventable.

The data indicates that more than one in five women with cervical cancer and nearly one in three women with breast cancer are only diagnosed at advanced stages, specifically stage three or four. Whilst describing the situation as a missed opportunity for early detection, Coulson added that the country possesses strong foundations to build upon, including existing legal frameworks, clinical capacities, and institutional expertise.

The research and subsequent strategic alignment form part of the wider European Beating Cancer Plan, an EU political framework designed to assist both member and non-member states in controlling and preventing the disease.