North's cancer rates higher than Republic's
Cancer rates in Northern Ireland are higher than in the Irish Republic, according to a health report out today.
The report, released jointly Health Minister Micheal Martin and Stormont Health Minister Bairbre de Brun compared data on the death rates from a variety of cancers over three years.
It found that there were similar patterns of the disease on both sides of the border but rates were higher in the North.
Overall, cancer rates except for less deadly skin cancers were around 7% higher in Northern Ireland than in the Republic.
Half of all patients who had contracted the disease were aged 68 or over but the report found that one in eight women and one in six men would die of cancer before the age of 74.
Ms de Brun, whose department is working on a strategy to fight the disease, said the main causes of the disease were poverty and cigarettes.
‘‘The urban populations have higher cancer rates and the two main reasons for this would be smoking and deprivation,’’ she said.
‘‘There are very definite things that society in general can do and individuals can do in order to tackle this disease.’’
Ms de Brun said it was probable that the higher rates of cancer in Northern Ireland could be traced to its higher urban population.
Among the gloom there were some signs of hope in the report, with evidence that rates of lung cancer among the male population were on the decrease.
The Minister said the message that smoking can kill appeared to be getting across to young men.
However, it was a different story among young women.
‘‘I think the increase in lung cancer death that we see here is due mainly to women taking up smoking over the last 20 to 30 years,’’ she said.
‘‘An entire strategy we are working on at the moment, particularly around stopping smoking is something that will have to be zeroed in particularly around young girls and women,’’ added the Minister.
