Movember is a campaign encouraging men to grow moustache in November to help raise public awareness about prostate cancer, the most lethal form of cancer among Slovenian males.

As many as 1,300 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in Slovenia a year, Borut Gubina of the urology unit of the surgery department of UKC Ljubljana, told reporters.

The disease mostly afflicts men aged between 50 and 60, but it may also strike the younger, Gubina said, adding that one could get it as early as at 40s.

The best method of treatment for prostate cancer that is locally limited is radiation therapy and the surgical removal of the prostate.

The latter is best done by means of a robotic surgery, a method that is not available at UKC Ljubljana as yet, but could be as early as next year according to plans.

"Development of urology and oncology treatment has been doing good progress," Gubina said, but his colleague Jure Bizjak raised a lack of urologists in Slovenia.

Slovenia ranks the last but one on the list of EU countries by the number of urologists per capita. "If we wanted to match the EU, we'd need another 100 urologists," Bizjak said.

Originating in Australia, the Movember movement has been joined by almost five million people globally in a decade, a representative of the Slovenian section of the movement, Martin Šala, said.

The movement has so far raised nearly EUR 500m, backing more than 800 projects. This year funds in Slovenia will be raised for oncology equipment.