Breast carcinoma is the most frequent malignant disease among women. The number of newly diagnosed cases is high globally with continuously rising absolute and relative values. Unfortunately, the mortality rate is high even despite preventive and screening programmes, increased medical awareness about breast carcinoma, technically sophisticated diagnostic devices with high sensitivity and new treatment procedures. Breast carcinoma is the most frequent cause of death from malignant diseases in women in the productive age. Malign breast carcinoma has thus become a serious epidemiological, social issue for the whole society.
More than 1.5 million new cases of breast cancer, which is today the most frequent type of cancer in women in most industrialized countries of Europe and North America, are being diagnosed in the world. It occurs in every eight to eleventh woman that lives to 85 in the USA and other developed countries of Europe. In the Slovak Republic, carcinoma can be found in approximately in one in twenty women, around 2 500 new cases are being diagnosed annually. The primary cause of the origin of the disease is not known with the malign breast cancer, apart from genetic mutations. Therefore there is still no primary prevention in the world and also efforts to decrease new occurrences of cancer were not successful. A prerequisite for decreasing breast carcinoma mortality is increased medical awareness of women and their persistence in adhering to recommended spans of regular preventive examinations.
The issue of postage stamp is linked to the “Breast Cancer Research Stamp” International Project created to raise funds to support research and treatment of this oncological disease. The first such stamp was issued in 1998 by the United States Postal Service based on the initiative of the U.S oncologist Dr. Ernie Bodai. The main motive of the postage stamp is the upper part of female body drawn by the U.S. illustrator Whitney Sherman. The motif of FDC and FDC cancellation is the daffodil as this postage stamp is issued on Daffodil Day of 2013.

MUDr. Vladimír Bella