Oncologists seek more cancer screening

Greater emphasis on smoking prevention and cervical cancer vaccination programmes is needed to combat high cancer rates among poorer communities, according to oncologists. Higher rates of many cancers in deprived areas are largely lifestyle-related and may have big implications for healthcare services and public awareness campaigns, says Dr Derek Power, oncologist at Cork University Hospital.

He was responding to a new report by the National Cancer Registry which showed that the chances of a person developing cancer and surviving it vary according to where they live, how old they are and how much they earn.

People from deprived backgrounds are more than twice as likely to develop some cancers and up to 50 per cent more likely to die from some forms of the disease compared to more affluent groups.

Meanwhile, the incidence of some cancers is up to 38 per cent higher in urban areas than it is in rural parts of the country.

Dr Power said education and screening were the most important aspects of cancer care and there needed to be much greater emphasis on compliance with national screening programmes.

Patients in deprived areas tended to present to a doctor later, have more advanced disease, receive less cancer surgery as a result and do worse with treatment, he said.In contrast, breast cancer and melanoma rates were lower in deprived areas, the study showed. Dr Power said the incidence of melanoma might be due to less foreign travel and consequent sun exposure.

Dr Harry Comber, director of the National Cancer Registry, said women with better nutrition were more prone to breast cancer, but better access to screening could also play a part in higher rates of the disease in more affluent areas.

Sinn Féin’s health spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly described the figures as “absolutely shocking” and claimed they showed evidence of a “postcode lottery” in cancer rates. “If you live in an area of social deprivation, then you’re not only more likely to contract cancer, you’re more likely to suffer an adverse outcome as a result of it and that is not acceptable,” she said.

Cork TD Mick Barry, of the AAA-PBP, said the figures were the latest example of the "dangerous" level of inequality in Ireland. "This is the strongest argument for the creation of an Irish national health service. We need a health system in which speedy access to treatments and examinations is not based on private care or insurance, but is free at all points of access."