Irish Medical Times
Pilot screening programme for prostate cancer need immediately

By Greg Baxter
A pilot screening scheme for prostate cancer is needed immediately.

Professor John Armstrong, chairman of the Irish Cancer Society, told Irish Medical Times that waiting for results from randomised trials in Europe and America about the efficacy of PSA testing would “waste lives” if the results came back positive. “Let us be sure, it is very likely the results will be positive because there is nothing intrinsically different about the biology of prostate cancer and breast cancer,” he said.

Full story at Irish Medical Times issue dated 28 April 2006

The West Australian: Poor kept in dark on cancer treatments

DAWN GIBSON

One in three medical specialists would not tell a cancer patient about a new drug that could prolong their life or improve their last days if the doctors thought the cost was well beyond the patient’s means.

Startling new medical research has highlighted how Australia has developed a two-tier system for cancer treatment - one for the rich and another for everyone else - because new-generation, life-prolonging drugs that cost up to $60,000 a year are not available under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

A national survey of almost 200 medical oncologists found some doctors were reluctant to tell patients about unsubsidised drugs if they thought they could not afford them.
(full story…)