A round-up of this week's other stories in brief
Children's entries to 'make us smile'
TWELVE PAINTINGS have been shortlisted from 5,000 entries from primary school children in this year’s Sightsavers Ireland Junior Painter of the Year Awards.
Children submitted entries under the theme “Seeing this Makes Me Smile”. Pictured above is the entry Seeing My Family by Sarah Mullaney (6), winner of the Connaught and Ulster Junior and Senior infants category.
More information on the awards is available from sightsavers.ie.
Chemotherapy suitability test now widely available
HUNDREDS OF breast cancer sufferers could be spared unnecessary chemotherapy as a result of a test which has now become more widely available in Ireland.
The Oncotype DX test is a genomic test which determines if a patient is better suited to anti-hormonal therapy than chemotherapy. It predicts the patient’s likely benefit from chemotherapy as well as their likelihood of breast cancer recurrence.
Of the 2,800 people, overwhelmingly women, who get breast cancer every year, potentially 1,000 could qualify for the test. Of those, about 200 currently receiving chemotherapy could benefit more from alternative treatments. The test is applicable only to those who have early-stage breast cancer.
Samples of cancerous tissue are sent to the US and the results are known within 12 days. The test is already in use in the US, Germany and the UK, but was formerly available in Ireland only as part of a clinical trial that took place between 2007 and August 2010.
The Oncotype DX test will now be available to all Aviva Healthcare customers at the eight cancer centres.
Beaumont oncologist Prof Bryan Hennessy said he had just returned from working in the US where the test was regarded as “routine”, and he said it should be made more widely available.
"There is no question that it offers benefits. There is something in it for the woman because she is spared chemotherapy; there is also something in it for the health service, because chemotherapy and the care that goes with chemotherapy costs money."
RONAN McGREEVY
OTC says tobacco rules have not affected incomes
LAST YEAR’S removal of in-store tobacco displays and advertising has not affected retailers’ incomes, research commissioned by the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) has found.
The research, conducted by the University of Nottingham, found there had been a decline in tobacco sales, but attributed this to “broader phenomena such as the global recession”.
The advertising and display of tobacco products at retail counters and vending machines has been prohibited since July 2009. Ireland was the first country in the EU to introduce such legislation and this research is the first study of its type.
Dr Casey Quinn, researcher and economist, said there had already been a general downward trend in cigarette packet sales before the ban, and that “no statistically significant change in cigarette pack sales was observed following implementation of the legislation”.
Positively, there has been a decrease in awareness of smoking among young people since the ban. Recall of tobacco displays among teenagers decreased from 81 per cent before the legislation to 22 per cent afterwards. Among adults this decreased from 49 per cent to 22 per cent. This showed “encouraging signs” that the legislation would “protect young people”, said the OTC.
Tara Buckley , director of the retailers' lobby group RGDATA, agreed that the removal of point-of-sale advertising and display of cigarettes – called "going dark" in the retail industry – had had no impact on tobacco sales. She said the decline in sales was due in huge part to illegal and counterfeit cigarettes. KITTY HOLLAND