Ireland's cancer treatment strategy is on course to reduce cancer deaths by 15 per cent by 2004, the chairman of the National Cancer Forum has said.
Prof James Fennelly said the investment of £26 million in cancer treatment services since 1997 and the political commitment of further funding to complete projects identified by the National Cancer Strategy would ensure the targeted reductions in cancer deaths would be met.
In particular, the development of specialist breast units across the State and the start of the national breast screening programme early next year should result in the number of breast cancer deaths being reduced by 28 per cent, he said.
About 7,500 people die from cancer in Ireland annually - accounting for one in four deaths. The current investment programme would establish the basis of a service on a par with those in other European countries, according to Prof Fennelly, who is special adviser on cancer services to the Department of Health.
The number of cancer patients who die in Ireland is above the EU average, with a mortality index of 0.65, compared to 0.63. Ireland has the third-highest mortality index for breast cancer.
The cancer strategy was published in 1996 and followed in March 1997 with a three-year action plan giving details of how it would be implemented. With just three months left to run in the plan, Prof Fennelly said between 75 and 80 per cent of the proposals had already been implemented.
Most of the new consultant and medical posts were funded and approved and were ready to be filled. More than 50 per cent of the appointments were already made.
Cancer treatment facilities were harshly criticised by Mr Seamus O Cathail, a consultant radiotherapist at Cork University Hospital, who claimed up to 1,000 patients a year were dying because of inadequate treatment facilities.
Statistics showed that in Europe an average of 66 per cent of cancer patients received radiotherapy treatment, compared to just 16 per cent in Ireland, he said.
The development of radiotherapy services is not part of the cancer strategy, although it does recognise the need to develop these services.
In a report issued in June, the strategy team suggested that capital funding of £30 million was needed in the medium term for radiotherapy services, with annual running costs of a further £10 million to £15 million.
Prof Fennelly said Mr O Cathail's claims were inaccurate as they were based on the statistics regarding the number of cancer patients who received radiotherapy treatment in any one year. The true figure for patients who received radiotherapy treatment during their lifetime was about 50 per cent.
Prof Fennelly said he was not aware of any group of patients who were denied radiotherapy treatment because of the lack of facilities. Although the average waiting time for treatment was between four and six weeks, this was acceptable for many types of cancer where the development of the disease was relatively slow.
In cases such as Hodgkin's lymphoma, where the progression could be rapid, treatment would have to be provided in days. However, he believed that claims that 1,000 lives a year could be saved if there were more radiotherapy facilities were overstated.
Fifty per cent of radiotherapy treatment was palliative, aimed at easing the symptoms rather than curing.
Just 25 per cent of patients received radiotherapy for curative treatment.