The need for better treatment for Irish women with breast cancer was raised yesterday in Dublin as research in Australia indicated that analysis of a single hair could detect breast cancer.
Women politicians who signed up to Europa Donna Ireland, an advocacy group to raise awareness about the disease, included TDs Ms Liz McManus (Lab), Ms Deirdre Clune (FG), Ms Mary Hanafin (FF), Ms Jan O'Sullivan (Lab), Ms Cecilia Keaveney (FF), Ms Beverly Cooper-Flynn (FF) and MEP Ms Bernie Malone (Lab).
The chairperson of the group, Ms Wilma Ormiston, said of 28 countries in Europe, Ireland has the eighth-highest incidence of breast cancer. She said the power of advocacy groups was apparent from their success in the US, specifically the powerful breast cancer coalition, who through pressure and lobbying managed to divert million of dollars from the defence budget into research.
"Never forget that breast cancer affects one in 13 women in Ireland and every woman deserves state-of-the-art services," she said, adding that a recent study carried out in Glasgow proved that women who attended a multi-disciplinary breast cancer clinic had a better five-year survival rate.
Europa Donna Ireland is campaigning to ensure that every woman with a breast lump is referred to a specialist centre, regardless of where she lives.
Meanwhile, research on breast cancer carried out in Australia has indicated that analysis of a single hair could replace mammography as the method for testing for breast cancer. The chance discovery is reported in the current edition of Nature magazine, and reveals that hair from breast cancer patients has a different molecular structure to hair from healthy women.
The technique could have "revolutionary implications" for detecting breast cancer" if followed up by larger trials, according to Prof Veronica James of the Australian National University, Canberra, who headed up the team, which also involved scientists in the US and Japan.
"Breast cancer screening is currently performed using mammography which, though effective, is a costly, uncomfortable and inconvenient test which limits its acceptability to many of the female population at risk of developing breast cancer."
The team investigated the structure of hair by measuring the way it scatters X-rays, a technique called X-ray diffraction. Hair taken from women diagnosed with breast cancer revealed rings of X-ray intensity in the diffraction pattern not seen in that of healthy subjects' hair.