Cancer strategy to be announced next month
The National Cancer Strategy Plan will be unveiled next month, Parliamentary Secretary Joe Cassar said this afternoon.
He said the draft was drawn up in conjunction with the French National Cancer Institute and details would be given at the launch.
Dr Cassar was speaking at an event organised by the Health Promotion Department to mark World Cancer Day, today.
He said that cures for cancer had improved immensely over the past few years. In Malta, the focus was on the building of the new Oncology Unit and on campaigns for the early detection of cancer. Bids for the excavation work of a site on the Mater Dei Hospital grounds were currently being assessed.
Dr Cassar said there were things people could do to keep cancer at bay, such as not smoking - the leading cause of lung cancer, and reducing alcohol drinking, which led to liver and stomach cancer.
It was also important that people had a healthy diet to reduce the risk of colon and stomach cancer.
Health Promotion Director Charmaine Gauci said her department was promoting a Mediterranean diet based on fruit, vegetables, fish and white meat. People should not eat too much red meat, she said, and they should exercise more.
The event was held at Freedom Square, where the Action Against Breast Cancer group, the Breast Care Support Group, the Health Promotion Department and an EU team promoting action to stop smoking, set up stalls and distributed literature to promote early detection of cancer.
12 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year.
In Malta there are 1,300 people diagnosed with cancer every year - a slight increase from previous years because of increased awareness of early detection.
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Chris J. Delicata
Feb 4th 2010, 20:40
A most welcome and long awaited initiative to fight this dreadful disease. Let us hope that the strategy being planned works well to the benefit of the Maltese particularly those suffering from cancer.
I however wish to urge the government to focus on another equally important medical condition, Diabetes; often referred to as the silent killer. In Malta we have a high incidence of diabetes with approximately 10% of our population having diabetes and others not knowing that they have this condition.
Malta is in dire need of a structured and effective National Diabetes Plan that will offer a strategy, direction and vision to fight and manage this long term condition. Approximately half of the EU Member States (including Malta) do not have a National Diabetes Plan.
Having an effective preventive Diabetes programme can serve to better manage this condition. The costs to implement such a plan should be seen by the Health Authorities as an investment to ease the burden of the complications arising from Diabetes and ease the hefty hospitalisation bills.
The government should work collectively with all stakeholders; the Diabetes Clinic, the Maltese Diabetes Association and our team of excellent diabetologists to get started now ...
n.cauchi
Feb 4th 2010, 16:44
How about we invest in more oncologists???
rather than just having 2 for the whole population!
What a disgrace, considering we have a high cancer rate in Malta, 2 oncologists are just not enough! In other countries around Europe they have oncologists who specialize in different types of cancers, therefore devoting their whole studies on the specified cancer.