Cancer treatment - Gaps in cancer care must be filled

IT is a harrowing but incontrovertible fact that the further a patient lives from a centre of treatment, the greater the chance of becoming another victim of cancer.

There has been a singular failure on the part of successive governments in improving cancer treatment on a national basis, despite the fact that thousands succumb to the disease every year, and 15,400 men and women this year alone will be diagnosed with it.

A report by the National Cancer Registry (NCR) two years ago confirmed that this geographical discrimination existed, and said it was “striking” that survival in the then Eastern Regional Health Authority — comprising Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow — tended to be better than in most other areas.