Page 1590 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 19 May 1993
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Madam Speaker, in Australia, as in other developed countries, cancer has placed an increasingly greater burden on our society this century than any other major disease. In 1907, for example, cancer was the eighth most common cause of death, but by 1947 it had assumed second ranking to cardiovascular disease - a position that it retains today. Cancer specialists have warned our Federal counterparts that by the end of this decade cancer will become the major cause of death, taking over from cardiovascular disease.
The Australian Cancer Society is anticipating that the total number of cases of new cancer will increase from 52,000 in 1985 to 78,000 by 2001 - a 50 per cent increase. An even greater increase is expected in the ACT, where for unknown reasons cancer deaths among women are particularly prevalent. In the ACT, two-thirds of female deaths in the 55-64 age group are due to cancer, while nationally the proportion is only one-half. In all of this, there are no accurate figures for cancer incidence in the ACT, because there is no requirement to report cancer and there is no cancer registry. It is imperative that in the future cancer prevention assume an even higher priority than it has today in the health care system and that more resources be devoted to preventive research and the implementation of cohesive, effective and efficient programs. This cannot be done without the relevant database which is needed for that to work.
Madam Speaker, in every other State there is mandatory reporting of cancer. Tasmania has just recently converted from a voluntary system to mandatory reporting. In the ACT what reporting we have is to New South Wales. However, it takes some time for the separation of the ACT statistics, which places the ACT at something of a disadvantage. For example, Madam Speaker, the latest figures available for breast cancer in the ACT come from a report for the period 1978 to 1982 which was produced by the New South Wales Cancer Council and which included some predicted figures, so the figures themselves were not necessarily right. While the New South Wales Cancer Council does receive some funding, it is a community organisation and is working under great pressure, without necessarily receiving increased resources to handle ACT figures. It is only reasonable to expect that the New South Wales Cancer Council would place first statistics which are relevant to New South Wales.
Madam Speaker, there is a desperate need for a separate cancer registry in the ACT. To take but one example of the disease, breast cancer, I know that the Government has a concern in this particular area, because, to the Government's credit, it has established a breast screening clinic - a clinic which was needed and which is doing a very good job. But to properly plan and resource breast cancer screening and breast cancer treatment generally we need to know the level of the problem and what the projections for the future might be. We also need the facts about other cancers.
Madam Speaker, breast cancer is now at epidemic proportions, killing about 250,000 women annually in the developed world alone. In Australia about 2,500 women die from breast cancer each year. This cancer, the most serious cancer for Australian women, is killing six women each day. Breast cancer is particularly prevalent in the ACT, with about 90 new cases being reported annually. But, because reporting cancer is not mandatory in the ACT, no-one really knows whether these figures are accurate. It is more than likely that they in fact understate the incidence of breast cancer in Canberra's women. The Canberra in the Year 2020 study predicted that the levels of all cancers, except chest cancer in men, would continue to rise.
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