Ristic: Serbia's cancer incidence and fatality rates highest in Europe due to NATO bombing

BELGRADE - Serbia has the highest cancer incidence and fatality rates in Europe as a result of the 1999 NATO bombing, says medical oncologist Dusan Ristic from the Serbian Institute of Oncology and Radiology.

Around 50,000 cases of cancer have been registered in Serbia over a period of one decade, which is a unique phenomenon directly linked with the fallout from the bombing, Ristic told the RTS on Tuesday.

"We know that around 200,000 patients were suffering from malignant diseases in 2001 and that there were 250,000 such patients in 2011. It is a trend that has not been registered anywhere else and it is directly linked with the fallout from the bombing," he said.

He said lung tumours were the most frequent forms of malignant diseases because depleted uranium - contained by ammunition used by NATO in the bombing - dispersed in contact with solid matters, resulting in high contamination.

"Serbia has the highest number of cancer patients and fatalities in Europe. Paradoxically, we have reduced the number of smokers at the same time, yet the number of (lung cancer) patients and fatalities remains high. We have 7,000 patients per year, and breast cancer and colorectal cancer follow with around 4,000 cases per year," Ristic said.

He noted that "bizarre forms" of typical diseases had been registered among patients in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo-Metohija.

"The number of patients suffering from malignant diseases is also very high among the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo-Metohija. In general, those patients have more aggressive or induced forms that we link with the effects of radiation and depleted uranium," Ristic explained.