Page 1210 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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MRS CARNELL: You were brief. The issue of screening has to be one that we concentrate on. We know that screening for breast cancer, cervical cancer and cancer of the large bowel has saved many lives, but many more lives could be saved. I mentioned earlier that breast cancer is one of the greatest killers of young women particularly. Although it is a women's disease, we had a fairly interesting argument in my office not so long ago when I was speaking at length about the problems of funding for breast cancer. This is a Federal issue, of course. It was raised, quite appropriately, with me that funding for prostate cancer is at a lower level than that for breast cancer. But, for all of that, funding for breast cancer simply is not high enough.
Mr Stevenson: Ten cents a person.
MRS CARNELL: That is right; you have got it. The issue of breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening is a public health issue. It comes back to making sure that every woman in our society knows that every two years she should be having a breast cancer screen. I would like to get to the stage where it is not only women over the age of 50 or over the age of 40 but somewhat lower than that. We now know that breast cancer is a problem in the thirties. When women go along for their Pap smear it would be nice to see breast screening available as well.
We know that 10 to 20 per cent of breast cancers will go undetected, even with a regular mammogram. That shows that we also have to make sure that women have information at their disposal so that they can pick up problems when they occur. They must know how to do a self-examination. Women are aware of the symptoms of cervical cancer, and everyone is aware of the symptoms of large bowel cancer. I am always interested, when Rotary run their large bowel cancer screen every year, in how few people take part. When it is free, when it is available in shopping centres, when it really is a quite simple thing to do, there is still only a very small section of the community that takes part in it. Again, it is one of those cancers where, once it is symptomatic, it is far too late.
I am interested in just how much money is spent on cancer research in Australia. I think the Chief Minister has mentioned that she is unhappy with the very small amount that has been allocated to research and treatment of breast cancer and, again, how small an amount has been used of the $64m that was allocated in 1990-91 for the three-year program. Again, although I would not suggest that one dollar be taken out of the money for AIDS, it is interesting when you compare that $64m for a three-year program with $300m over a three-year period for the AIDS program. We know that AIDS is a dreadful disease, but it is fatal to only about 270 people per year in comparison to the huge number of people who fall victim to breast cancer, let alone all the other cancers.
Mr Stevenson spoke about the people who attended the conference he referred to. Although the AMA were very negative, a number of those people I have heard speak on many occasions and I think it would be very unwise to write those people off. They are very well trained and they know exactly what they are doing. I am seeing regularly in my pharmacy people with cancer, who have come from their own specialists - traditional doctors operating in traditional medical areas - with books clutched in their hands such as this one, The Cancer Help Source Book, which speaks at length about diet.
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