Irish Examiner view: Cancer data is a matter of life and death

clearly there is an urgent need to improve services in the HSE’s Mid-West region

the annual report from the National Cancer Registry Ireland report showed lower survival rates for a number of cancers in the HSE’s Mid-West region compared to the other regions. Picture: Lynne Cameron/PA

There is no substitute for data in the modern world, where statistics are the key to addressing the challenges in every field imaginable. Healthcare is a case in point, with reliable information about treatment outcomes a cornerstone of planning and policy.

Hence the shock at the annual report from the National Cancer Registry Ireland (NCRI), which compared survival rates for a number of cancers across the six HSE regions.