Health cuts will worsen surge in cancer

The country’s leading cancer expert has warned that new cases of the disease in Ireland are likely to rise dramatically over the next 20 years — and existing cancer patients may be denied potentially life-saving drugs as a result of ongoing health service cutbacks.

Professor John Crown, a consultant oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, admitted that World Cancer Research Fund predictions that the number of new cancer cases in Ireland could rise by 72% by 2030 are “very plausible”.

While confident about the general level of health services for cancer patients, Prof Crown said he was concerned about signals there could be cutbacks in the provision of cancer-treating drugs.