State failing people on cancer prevention

AFFLUENCE HAS a huge impact on cancer prevention, early detection and treatment, a debate on cancer in Ireland heard last night.

Dominic Ó Brannagain, consultant in palliative medicine at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda was speaking at the Irish TimesPfizer Health Forum Debate about cancer in Ireland.

That people in the greatest need of healthcare were least likely to get access was the “elephant in the room” in cancer management and treatment in Ireland, he said.

Throughout the journey of prevention to treatment, how well off you are determines how well you can do, he said.

Contributory factors such as smoking , drinking, lack of exercise and bad diet applied more to people in lower socioeconomic groups than higher, he added.

The State was failing people when it came to cancer prevention by collecting 100s of millions of euro in cigarette tax every year but only spending about €2 million on prevention, John McCormack of the Irish Cancer Society said.

“We will never beat cancer in Ireland when we have the best part of a million people smoking” he said.

The implementation of the cancer strategy had rightly concentrated on treatment but prevention had been “largely ignored” he said.

Mr McCormack said the mortality rate in Ireland from cancer was higher than in other comparable countries. However, rates of cancer were not higher, he added.

He hoped the current cancer strategy would bring survival rates in Ireland in line with the best in the world for the main four cancers, breast lung prostate and bowel.

In 10 years survival rates in Ireland should be similar to the EU and north America, Malcolm Kell Consultant Surgeon at the Mater hospital and of Breastcheck said.

Until Ireland had a screening cycle for 10 years it would not see the true benefit, he added.

Noelle Duddy spokeswoman for Co-operating for Cancer Care North West said she was concerned that there had been too much centralisation as part of the cancer strategy.

She spoke of a woman having to travel to Galway for a breast check when she previously went to Sligo. “We need triple assessment but are we being overly cautious closing public hospitals providing service.” she said.

Ms Duddy said that patients in Donegal still had to travel 300km to Galway for breast cancer services. It was the only region without a cancer centre and she asked why Dublin has four centres of excellence.

That opening of private centres for cancer treatment undermined confidence of the cancer strategy, she said. It showed there was one rule for the public sector and another for the private, she added.

Mr Kell addressed concerns raised by the audience that women under 50 should be screened for breast cancer. Screening for breast cancer in women of this age would mean that the number of women that need to be screened to be effective is much higher than the older age group, he said.