Cancer report - Frightening truth cannot be ignored

There are a number of shocking aspects to a new report on the occurrence of cancer in women, not least of which is that it has increased by 25% in a little over a decade.

It is also alarmingly obvious that this country is not, and has not, been effective in battling the disease because, apart from Denmark, the death rate from cancer among women here is higher than for other western European countries.

Cancer, in all the forms it takes, is the second most common cause of death for women in Ireland, with about 3,500 succumbing to it every year. The increase in the incidence of the disease is illustrated by the sombre fact that in the region of 74,000 malignant cancers in women will be diagnosed in this year.