Doctors’ group airs regional cancer concerns

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia is alarmed by a recent study that shows people in country areas who are diagnosed with cancer are 35 per cent more likely to die within five years than cancer sufferers in the city.

Association president Sue Page says with gender-specific cancers like cervical or prostate cancer, the figures are even worse, with the death rate three times higher in the country compared with metropolitan areas.Dr Page says difficulties in accessing screening services are part of the reason for the imbalance, but even when cancer is detected early, more country people are dying.She says this is because of a lack of adequate treatment facilities in regional areas.”What we’re finding is that country people don’t want to be told they’ve got cancer and, by the way, you’ve got to travel several hundred kilometres to the nearest place to get treatment,” she said.”They’re tending to make choices of staying in their community, accepting levels of treatment that are not giving them the best chances of surviving and they’re not surviving.”(Source: ABC News: June 2004)