Fed: lung cancer patients on medical scrapheap

AAP General News (Australia)
12-10-2001
Fed: lung cancer patients on medical scrapheap

A medical expert says lung cancer patients in Australia are being denied adequate treatment.

Cancer Council chief executive officer Dr ANDREW PENMAN says survival rates in Australia
are lower than the US because of haphazard responses of Australian doctors to the disease.

Meanwhile, a new report in New South Wales has revealed more than 80 per cent of lung
cancer patients die within a year of diagnosis.

Australia-wide, as few as ten per cent of lung cancer patients survive beyond five
years, compared to about 15 per cent in the US.

Dr PENMAN says lung cancer is typically diagnosed at around the same late stage in
Australia and the US, but says what happens after diagnosis is crucial.

He says in the US patients are more quickly referred to highly specialised teams with
a high level of experience in aggressively investigating the cancer.

Dr PENMAN says doctors treating lung cancer in Australia vary greatly in their approach.

AAP RTV rr/jhm/jtb/jh

KEYWORD: LUNG (BRISBANE)

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.