UPDATE - Issue 03 - June 1999
Shamed into Action: Success for UPDATE
Editorial
Articles in previous issues of Update, notably our 88 to 1 article in the last issue of Update highlighting the disparity between the Government's support for research into breast cancer relative to prostate cancer, seem to have had some effect. Several MPs have written to Baroness Hayman and have been kind enough to send us copies of the replies they received. In a recent letter to Dr. George Turner, MP for Norfolk North West she admits "There has in the past been lack of research into prostate cancer". This is a most welcome statement and, we suspect, something of a shift in the Government's position.
Cancer Forum at Number 10
In mid May, Tony Blair chaired a Cancer Forum at 10 Downing Street at which he met with a small group of eminent cancer specialists to hear their concerns at first hand. He was brought face to face with the fact that UK cancer survival rates are amongst the lowest in Western Europe, that we spend less on cancer drugs than most other countries and that, in the UK, more is spent on constipation than on cancer. Tony Blair did not promise any more money at this stage, an outcome which the Press derided as another example of sound-bite politics. Nevertheless, the raised profile of the topic can do nothing but good in the longer term.
The Prime Minister was made aware that the British Association of Urological Surgeons has proposed a randomised trial of up to 140,000 men aged 55 to 69, to resolve the debate over the benefits of routine screening for raised serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). This is likely to go ahead because the Government's Health Technology Assessment programme is currently considering 5 proposals for a trial of treatments for the spectrum of prostate cancers likely to be identified by a screening programme. The average cost of these proposals is £2.5 million.
The debate on this important issue - whether to launch a screening programme in the UK - is at last being considered seriously at the highest level and is likely to receive sufficient funding to resolve the main issues fairly quickly.
Thanks in part to Update!