The publication this week of the second in a series of reports on cancer covering the whole of the island of Ireland has produced some interesting insights. The collaborative efforts by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry and the National Cancer Registry, supported by the US National Cancer Institute, found that there are 19,000 cases of cancer diagnosed in Ireland each year. It confirmed that colon cancer, lung cancer, tumours of the breast in women and prostate cancer in men are far more common than cancers at other sites in the body.
However, the main talking points to emerge from the report concern breast cancer, prostate cancer and the east-west divide in the incidence of certain cancers. Dr Harry Comber, the director of the National Cancer Registry, identified a number of different phenomena which explain the difference in breast, lung and colorectal rates. Lung cancer is closely linked with smoking: with the greatest pockets of urban deprivation in the east, where smoking rates are greater, higher levels of lung cancer in these parts is no surprise. The high rates of breast cancer especially in Dublin and Kildare may reflect a greater availability of mammography. The geographical split in colon cancer is harder to explain and will now be the subject of further research.
Prostate cancer findings too, have triggered a significant research project to establish why the rate of this particular cancer is so much higher in the Republic. One possible explanation is that the different health systems, North and South, could be influencing alternative diagnostic and treatment methods for the male cancer.
But the findings on breast cancer are the most clear cut: deaths from the disease have fallen by one-fifth in the North but have remained constant in the Republic over the last decade. The report is clear in its explanation. "Established screening programmes in Northern Ireland and the lack of such programmes until recently in the Republic of Ireland have contributed to the regional differences observed," it states.
This is clear evidence that women in the Republic are suffering because of the failure to extend Breastcheck nationally. It is especially bad news for women in the South and West of the State who still have no date when they can expect to participate in a breast cancer screening programme. More women will die prematurely from the disease as a result of this failure. As the Government adopts a less rigid approach to the public finances in the coming months, the Minister for Health must secure adequate funding to immediately extend Breastcheck to the rest of the State.