Ireland needs 100 oncologists by 2028 to deal with cancer challenge, says professor

Vivienne Clarke

The co-chair of the All Island Cancer Research Institute, Professor Mark Lawler has warned that while the national cancer strategy is a good strategy, if it is not properly resourced then it was “just a piece of paper sitting on a shelf.”

“If you don't resource it, it's not going to achieve what is required,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland in advance of a major conference on cancer.

Prof. Lawler pointed out that when it comes to the workforce and radiologists in particular, Ireland has 8.39 per 100,000 while the European average is 11.37 per 100,000.

“We probably need something like a 100 medical oncologist by 2028 to deal with the challenges that we face in cancer. So we have been doing well. The strategy is good, but if you don't implement the strategy, if you don't resource the strategy, then it's not a strategy. It's just a piece of paper sitting on a shelf.”.

Thursday’s conference will bring together world leaders in cancer research and cancer care and will debate the “significant challenges” faced in the treatment of cancer.

Prof. Lawler said it was not acceptable that there was a “postcode lottery” in relation to socio economic status when it came to cancer treatment.

It was a tragedy, he said that the poorer the background, the later the chances of being diagnosed which led to poor survival rates.

“That's what the data is showing us. We're seeing a 10 percent difference between the haves and the have nots. We should be having a scenario where we're actually saving everybody in society equally. And unfortunately, we're not. And that's really not acceptable. And we need to do something about it.

“It shouldn't be where you live decides what treatment occurs, whether you're diagnosed early or not. So we really need to look at this much more closely. The data that we presented in this European cancer pulse is unequivocal. It's now highlighting we need solutions to this problem.”

Prof. Lawler said it was disappointing that in the last seven budgets in Ireland, only two had actually given money to cancer.

“Ireland was actually performing better than the United Kingdom. And I'm not saying we need to compare ourselves to the United Kingdom, but just as a reasonable comparator. But what's happened is in Ireland, in the last seven budgets, only two of those budgets have actually given money to cancer.

"And so we're in danger of moving away from the consistency of cancer policy that gave us better outcomes to inconsistency in cancer policy, which will lead to poor outcomes, and we will start going backwards rather than forwards.”