At the end of 20th century Poland has become a country with high risk of neoplastic diseases, which statistically are the second cause of death in Poland. It is generally known that the best method of fighting neoplasms is prevention and early detection.

The aim of the study was to evaluate possibilities and limitations of oncological prophylactics in opinion of the primary healthcare medical personnel.

The questionnaire survey included 216 subjects, 110 primary healthcare physicians and 106 community nurses, working on contracts with family physicians in the Lublin Region.

The respondents unanimously consider neoplastic diseases to be a serious health problem in Poland, and the prophylactic activities aiming at preventing them – to be effective and feasible (96.2%) possibly in cooperation with ambulatory specialist care (14.8%). More than a half of the surveyed family physicians and community nurses believed that routine procedures during patients’ visits are a more efficient diagnostic method than active and organised screening. The most important role in onclological prophylactics should be played by primary healthcare (79.1%). A considerable majority of the respondents confirm the need of patients’ education in creating a healthy lifestyle and developing longitudinal prophylactic programmes and screening tests system. The limitations of cancer prophylactics result from insufficient funding assigned to prophylactics (71.4%), as well as from the insufficient knowledge of the society on neoplastic diseases (49.5%) and the society’s inappropriate health attitudes (46.2%).