An increasing number of younger women are being diagnosed with breast cancer, with some patients as young as 15, politicians have been told.
The risk of developing breast cancer increases with age, with the condition most commonly being diagnosed in women age 50 or older who have been through menopause, according to the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Speaking at a meeting of the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday, Sinn Féin Senator Nicole Ryan said representative groups told her there are increasing numbers of young people – including teenagers – being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Amy Nolan, director of clinical affairs at the Irish Cancer Society (ICS), confirmed they are hearing about more younger people attending their GPs with complaints about lumps in their breasts.
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“When it comes breast cancer diagnosis, we are unfortunately hearing of younger women in their 20s and 30s presenting with symptoms. Because of their age, and given breast cancer is less common in this age cohort, they can be categorised as “non-urgent” for referral to assessment clinics,” Ms Nolan told The Irish Times after the meeting.
“This can result in delayed diagnosis for some younger women. We are calling for breast cancer screening age to be lowered to 45, and we also need to see greater capacity across our diagnostics so that we can alleviate pressures and increase early detection.”
At the meeting, the charity told politicians about a number situations in which care was not delivered in a timely manner.
Steve Dempsey, director of communications, advocacy and community experience at the Society, said one patient asked for advice in relation to a suspicious lump noted during an endoscopy and was told they will be waiting around one year for a biopsy.
Another patient told the ICS their scheduled surgery was cancelled due to overcrowding. They are still awaiting a new date nearly three months later.
One patient was waiting 18 weeks after surgery to commence radiotherapy, while a Ukrainian living in Ireland told the charity they had bowel cancer symptoms. Due to long delays in waiting time for colonoscopies, they returned to Ukraine for colonoscopy and subsequent surgery for bowel cancer.
Dr Triona McCarthy, assistant national director of the National Cancer Control Programme, said demand for cancer services has increased due to an increasing and ageing population, as well as an increase in the complexity of treatment.
Dr McCarthy said there are more than 200,000 people now living with or after cancer in Ireland, but many of these people “are being treated again and again for recurrences”.
On the availability of novel cancer drugs in the public system, Michael McCarthy, consultant medical oncologist in Galway hospital, and president of the Irish Society of Medical Oncologists, said the HSE has made “great progress” in making these expensive drugs available to patients.
Over the last number of years, 125 new “high-cost drugs” have been funded, he said.
Mr McCarthy warned the “challenge” is the pace of change internationally with “more and more treatments coming out more quickly”, making it difficult for the HSE’s reimbursement process to keep up.
Currently, many insurance companies cover the cost of these drugs before they are approved for use in the public system, so long as they have approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
“There are 12 or 13 different drug treatments across my cancer groups approved by EMA. They’re not available in the public system. I have referred patients in private hospital and they have gotten access to the drug,” he said.
“There is a range of breakthroughs across multiple cancer types – many of those will get EMA approval in the months ahead. A fraction of those drugs reach HSE reimbursement in the coming two or three years. I can only see this gap in access widening.”
Damien McCallion, head of technology at the HSE, said they are conscious that the approval process in the public system is long, but described it as “robust”.
There is currently discussion between the Department of Health and the Pharmaceutical Association on how to develop an early access programme for these medications, he added.
