FAMILY DOCTORS have been told not to refer any new breast cancer patients to Dublin’s Tallaght hospital from this Friday.
The move is part of the national strategy to centralise breast cancer diagnosis and surgery at eight specialist centres in the State.
GPs have been informed they should instead refer new breast cancer patients to St James’s or St Vincent’s hospitals in Dublin.
It follows the controversial transfer of breast cancer services from Sligo to Galway earlier this month.
To date, breast services have been moved to larger centres from all but two hospitals – Tallaght and the South Infirmary Victoria Hospital in Cork. The transfer of services from the South Infirmary Victoria Hospital to Cork University Hospital is due later in the year.
Minister for Health Mary Harney confirmed the Tallaght move when she attended a global cancer summit at the RDS yesterday.
She said she would love if the director of the cancer control programme Prof Tom Keane could stay in Ireland longer. He plans to return to Canada later this year after his two-year term on the job comes to an end.
In addition Ms Harney said she expected promised legislation banning sunbed use by those under 18 years to be drafted soon. But she said she would love to see a ban on sunbed use by people of all ages because of their link to skin cancer.
“We know that sun beds are dangerous,” she said, adding that it was particularly sad to see children as young as six or seven being exposed to them before their First Holy Communion.
A new report presented at the summit puts the total economic cost of new cancer cases worldwide this year at $305 billion (€213 billion).
The estimate, in a report compiled by the New York based Economist Intelligence Unit, estimates there will be 12.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed this year around the world, a figure set to rise to 16.8 million in 2020.
The report put the direct and indirect costs of treating cancer in Ireland this year at $629 million (€440 million). But economist Richard Stein pointed out that this was a conservative estimate based on costs associated with the 26 most common cancers and not all cancers seen here this year. The costs are estimates rather than based on actual figures provided by the Irish Government.
The document also identifies a $217 billion (€152 billion) treatment expenditure gap for cancer in 2009 but does not say specifically how much extra each country needs to invest to bridge this gap. However, it stresses most of the gap is in the developing world. Today more than half of new cancer cases and nearly two thirds of cancer deaths occur in the developing world.
The report was commissioned by Livestrong, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, with support from the American Cancer Society.
Launching it, the seven times Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong said investment in cancer care even at this difficult time economically is something that should and must be made in order to reduce the burden of the disease. It had to be a global priority, he said.
Doug Ulman, president and CEO of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, said cancer will be the number one killer worldwide in 2010.