Cancer patients facing postcode lottery, with survival rate lower in poorer areas

Ireland ‘must act now’ and increase funding – expert

Where you live can signal if you are more likely to die of cancer, as new figures show five-year survival rates in the most deprived areas are still just 59pc – 9pc lower than in affluent parts of the country.

The stark pre-pandemic gap is likely to have widened even further due to the impact of Covid disruption and the failure to provide development funding for the National Cancer Strategy, according to a report published today.

The report from the European Cancer Organisation (ECO) and the Irish Cancer Society highlights the inequalities which continue to have an effect, with those in the least well-off areas at greater risk of dying from the disease.

The report highlights the knock-on effect of lifestyle, later diagnosis and less timely access to treatment on some of the less well-off sections of society.

The report is being launched during the Joint Euro-American Forum on Cancer at Farmleigh House in Dublin. It points out that like the rest of Europe, Ireland has been impacted by the cancer workforce crisis.

For example, there are 8.39 radiologists per 100,000 residents in Ireland, while the EU average is 11.37.

Mark Lawler, professor of digital health at Queen’s University Belfast, said the data highlighted the significant cancer inequalities faced by people living in the most deprived areas of Ireland.

“Given our previous work, it is quite likely that the impact of Covid-19, as well as the Government’s failure to provide any new recurrent development funding for the National Cancer Strategy in 2023 or 2024, has widened this 9pc survival gap even further,” said Prof Lawler, who is on the All-Island Cancer Research Institute.

“Our data has shown that consistency of cancer policy has resulted in better outcomes for cancer patients in Ireland when compared to the UK, for example. But consistency means you have to keep on doing it. Letting up gives the advantage back to cancer.

“The recent lack of investment in the Irish National Cancer Strategy is worrying and risks sending Ireland backwards in terms of cancer outcomes, undoing the good work of previous decades. Ireland must act now.”

Last week, a number of cancer specialists and researchers wrote to the Government warning of the growing difficulties faced by patients in need of diagnosis, as well as problems of surgeries having to be postponed due the trolley crisis. It came against a background of calls for more funding for the cancer strategy.

Breast screening rates here are at 74.8pc, versus an OECD average of 54pc. Cervical screening in Ireland stands at 72.9pc, versus an OECD figure of 56pc.

Bowel screening levels are also higher in Ireland at 49.5pc versus 36pc in the OECD. There are also pilots due this year in screening for lung cancer, prostate cancer and gastric cancer.

Alcohol consumption here is 9.5 litres per adult annually compared with 10 litres in the OECD.

Speaking at the launch, Irish Cancer Society chief executive Averil Power said: “We know that people across the country do not have equal access to cancer care and services in Ireland.

“Inequality between public and private patients is growing, particularly in terms of access to new medicines.”

She added that it is very positive that the uptake of Ireland’s current screening programmes was higher than the EU average.

“However, Bowel-Screen has not been expanded as planned,” she said.

“The age groups covered by screening in Ireland are more limited than in some other European countries.

“Previous data has also found significant differences in screening uptake between affluent and lower-income areas. We need to ensure that every Irish person, regardless of their background or income, has the best possible chance of surviving cancer.

“Without proper multi-annual funding for the National Cancer Strategy, not only are Ireland’s cancer outcomes unlikely to improve, but we are at serious risk of going backwards.”

She said Ireland needed to be more ambitious in preventing cancer and while it was “doing well on HPV vaccination, it is falling behind on its targets for tobacco and alcohol consumption”.

The charity said emerging issues such as vaping, binge drinking by young people and obesity rates were much higher in Ireland than elsewhere in the EU.

The report calls for the minimum age for tobacco sales to be raised to 21 to achieve an EU tobacco-free generation.

It said there should be regular public reporting on progress on EU recommendations on cancer screening.

It also seeks measures to eliminate vaccine-preventable cancers caused by HPV and hepatitis B (HBV) and said there was a need to address the “cancer workforce crisis” which, it claimed, was a threat to health system resilience.

There also should be legal protections for cancer survivors so that they need not declare their disease to financial service providers, it said.

The HSE was unable to respond to requests for comment yesterday.