It marks a major turnaround since the 1980s, as Prof Phillipe Autier of the Internal Prevention Research Unit at Lyon, France said the largest fall has been in those countries which once had the highest death rates. His study reveals the death rate from the disease among Irish women aged under 50 has fallen by as much as 50pc since the late 1980s. He said that improved treatments, rather than improved screening, helped to explain the improved rate of survival.
The encouraging trend comes as a separate study by the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin found that a majority of GPs here prefer to refer their breast cancer patients to one of the eight hospitals specialising in the disease. (Independent) >
Filed under: Cancer Tagged: Breast cancer, Epidemiology
