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May 9th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Posted
A new study shows more than 60,000 Australian lives have been saved through cancer prevention measures over the past 20 years.
The research, by the New South Wales Cancer Council, compared recent cancer deaths with those in the 1980s.
It found an overall reduction of 30 per cent in cancer deaths, with the largest reductions in lung, bowel and breast cancer deaths.
Associate Professor Freddie Sitas from the council says the report shows advances in cancer prevention, screening and treatment are working.
“The top three were lung cancer with about 2,000 deaths avoided, followed by bowel cancer with about 1,800 deaths avoided and breast cancer with about 700 deaths avoided,” he said.
He says the drop in lung cancers reflects a drop in the number of male smokers, while the incidence of breast cancer has dropped because of the national breast screening program.
“Australians have reduced their smoking rates, especially males, so that has accounted for the decline in lung cancer deaths,” he said.
“For bowel cancer we think it’s a of combination of treatment and catching it early and sticking to various treatment guidelines nationally.
“In addition, for breast cancer it’s a combination of screening, detecting breast cancers early and again treating the right people at the right time with the right treatment.”
But Associate Professor Sitas says there are still improvements to be made when it comes to cancers such as brain, pancreatic and cancer of the palate.
“The main area to work on is trying to find a test that detects these cancers quicker, at an earlier stage,” he said.
“So working at various blood-based markers to detect some kind of sign that will tell you that somebody’s got early stages of these cancers.
“But also working at better treatment. Survival for those three cancers is not very good, it’s poor and hasn’t been improving for a long time, so working at better treatments for increasing survival and quality of life would be my top two priorities.”
Topics:
lung-cancer,
cancer,
breast-cancer,
bowel-and-rectal-cancer,
diseases-and-disorders,
health,
australia
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-09/cancer-prevention-has-saved-60000-lives-say-researchers/4678376
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