Breast cancer report cause for concern - Liz Lynne

12.00.00am GMT Wed 18th Jan 2006

Liz Lynne, Lib Dem MEP for the West Midlands and co-chair of MEPs Against Cancer, warned today that a new report into breast cancer survival rates shows the need for better guidelines for treatment of older women.

The report, Failures in the Management of Elderly Women with Breast Cancer, compared five year breast cancer survival rates in two groups of Swedish women between 1992 and 2002. The study found that women aged 70-84 years had up to a 13% lower chance of surviving breast cancer than those aged 50-69 years. It also found that older women were less likely to receive mammography screening, chemotherapy and breast-conserving surgery.

Commenting on the paper's findings, Liz Lynne said:

"These statistics are particularly alarming coming from Sweden, which has one of Europe's better health care systems. Elsewhere there may be an even greater difference in survival rates."

"Breast cancer in older women is an under-researched area. This study found that roughly a third of all breast cancer patients are 70 years or older at diagnosis. With an increasingly ageing population, this is a topic we cannot ignore."

In November last year Liz Lynne launched MEPs Against Cancer, an all-party group which aims to make cancer an EU priority.

"This is a disease which touches us all. Every day, nearly 5,500 Europeans are diagnosed with cancer, and breast cancer is by far the most common form of the disease among women, accounting for 27.4% of all cases."

"One of the aims of MEPs Against Cancer is to share ideas and best practice from across Europe. Only by working together can we help to better prevent, detect and treat all kinds of cancer."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1.Failures in the Management of Elderly Women with Breast Cancer is a report that was published this week by Sonja Eaker, Paul W Dickman, Leif Bergkvist, Lars Holmberg and the Uppsala/Örebro Breast Cancer Group in the Public Library of Science. A full copy of the report is available at:

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030092

2.One in three Europeans is diagnosed with cancer, and the disease kills 1 in 4 people. Every day nearly 5,500 Europeans are diagnosed with cancer and over 3,000 die from the disease. In 2004, two million people in the EU of 25 were diagnosed with cancer and more than 1.2 million died from the disease. Breast cancer is by far the most common form of the disease among women, accounting for 27.4% of all cases and 17.4% of cancer deaths in women.

3.For more information on the work of MEPs Against Cancer, go to:

http://www.cancerworld.org/cancerworldadmin/getStaticModFile.aspx?id=682