Prevention has 'potential' to reduce risk of cancer

PREVENTION MEASURES have more potential to reduce cancer risk than screening or treatment but tend not to be funded as well, the head of the National Cancer Registry has said.

Dr Harry Comber was speaking at the launch of Atlas of Cancer in Ireland from 1994 to 2003, which reveals a higher risk of smoking-related cancer in more deprived urban areas.

The high rate of stomach cancer in the northeast was one of the major geographical patterns to emerge from the study. Dr Comber described the level of stomach cancer in north Co Dublin, Louth, Monaghan and Cavan as “striking”. The rate of stomach cancer was some 50 per cent higher than the national average in much of this area.

Causes of stomach cancer include smoking and a bacterial infection. It may also be related to diet, such as the use of processed and smoked meats, he said.

Dr Comber ruled out a link to radiation from the Sellafield nuclear plant. He said it would be useful to try to target smoking in certain urban areas. Men in deprived areas are 70 per cent more likely to get lung cancer than those in the wealthiest areas, the report found. There were similar patterns for women.

“Prevention has more potential to reduce cancer risk than any other measure including screening and treatment. The prevention programme should be funded proportionately and it is not and it tends to be the poor relation,” he said.

He said obesity was a major cause of cancer and should be tackled at national level. Breast and prostate cancer were the types that people in affluent areas were most likely to be diagnosed with it.

Prostate cancer in Dublin was a mirror image of lung cancer levels, Dr Comber said. Men in the most affluent areas had a 20 per cent higher risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer than men in the most deprived areas.

It was a similar scenario for breast cancer as women in deprived areas had a 12 per cent lower chance of being diagnosed than those in more affluent areas.