Lifestyle changes key to cutting cancer rates

Addressing lifestyle and environmental factors that have been found to cause cancer could have a much bigger impact on the incidence of the disease than screening and new drugs, oncologist Stephen Brincat told The Times.

Around one third of cancer cases are caused by environment or lifestyle factors, including smoking, alcohol consumption, sun exposure, diet and obesity as well as sexual habits.

Statistics clearly show that in Malta the rate of cancer is on the increase and Dr Brincat, chairman of the Radiotherapy and Oncology Department at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, said the future was not looking pretty.

"A glance at the smoking habits of our youths depicts quite a depressing picture of our future. Smoking is very widespread, especially among females - something that was unusual some 20 to 30 years ago.

"In fact, if you look at the incidence of lung cancer among females, you realise that it's shooting up and the worst is still to come," he said.

Figures from the National Cancer Registry show that lung cancer among men dropped between 1996 and 2005 but rose in the same decade in the case of females.

Dr Brincat pointed out that the effects of smoking are seen after 20 years or more. Apart from the obvious lung cancer risk, smoking has also been associated with mouth and larynx cancers, and even cancer of the bladder and to leukaemia.

The fact that people are living longer, as well as better diagnostic methods, are contributing to the increasing cancer rates.

On Wednesday, a founder of the Action for Breast Cancer Foundation expressed concern that some women with breast cancer were having to take out loans to be able to foot the costs of drugs. Helen Muscat said some cancers were receptive to Herceptin, but a course of the drug costs about Lm16,000.

Questioned about this, Dr Brincat explained that, although only a minority of patients would actually benefit from Herceptin - just one fifth of cancers are receptive to the drug - this has become standard treatment for early breast cancer. The drug has been found to cut the risk of a relapse by about a half.

Dr Brincat said the Oncology Department had applied to the Health Division to have the drug made available here but this had not yet happened.

Asked about the fact that there was a year-long waiting list for routine mammograms, Dr Brincat said the problem not only lay in the lack of facilities but also because of the shortage of human resources.

Malta's size was also a problem. "While abroad they might have half a dozen highly-trained people to deal with a million patients, here we still need trained staff to see to much fewer patients."