Progress in tackling cancer stalls due to lack of dedicated funding, charity warns

Progress made by Ireland in tackling cancer has stalled due to a failure to provide dedicated funding for successive disease strategies, a seminar has been told.

While “incredible progress” was made during the first two cancer strategies, this has ceased since the current strategy started in 2017 due in part to a “crazy” lack of investment, according to Averil Power, chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society (ICS).

No dedicated funding was allocated to the strategy in five of the last seven budgets, she told the seminar on cancer care and outcomes at the Institute of International and European Affairs.

A future where no one dies of cancer “lies within our grasp” if given sufficient political priority, she argued.

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Despite increases in overall survival rates and the development of less toxic treatments, outcomes for some cancers remain low and the burden of disease remains very unequal in the population, Ms Power said.

Ireland has “a long way to go” to catch up on the best-performing countries, and is also behind on access to new medicines, e-health and support services for survivors.

Prof McDermott said his heart sank when he heard there would be no funding for new drugs in the Budget announced last month. “How are we going to offer access for patients when we have no money? Insurers say they will provide cover once a drug is approved but that is only for part of the population. For all other patients, we need equity, not a two-tier system.”

Ireland provides access to 39 per cent of new cancer drugs, Dr Thorsten Giesecke, general manager of Janssen Sciences Ireland pointed out, while Germany provides access to 98 per cent of them.