Kerre Woodham: Funding cancer prevention is a no-brainer

You know it's an election year, don't you? You know it's an election year when Winston's fermenting merry mischief, when the leader of the opposition is happy to put himself up for an hour of questions on talkback, and when lobby groups are releasing their election wish lists. 

The Cancer Society has released its election manifesto and is calling on the next Government, however it looks, to spend dollars to save them. For example, if you invest $5.5 million a year to deliver a national skin cancer prevention and early detection programme, more than 90% of cases will be prevented – nearly all cases are treatable when detected early. Every dollar invested, according to the Cancer Society, returns $11.90 in savings.  

And when you think of friends and family who have been through cancer treatment, you can understand how that would stack up. If you don't have to go through the torturous and expensive and generally lifesaving treatments, you are saving so much. So much of your own energy, so much time, so much money as a result of not getting cancer in the first place or early detection. As Cancer Society Chief Executive Nicola Coom told Mike Hosking this morning, given that cancer's New Zealand's biggest killer, it makes sense to invest in early detection and treatments. 

“One in three of us in New Zealand will receive a cancer diagnosis in our lifetime, but what's startling is one in three can also be prevented. So 81 people today around New Zealand are going to hear that they've got cancer. What this manifesto is about is we want those people to either A, not have that news in the first place, or B, be told it's okay, we've detected it early, your prognosis is good.” 

So the Cancer Society also wants to see cervical screening fully funded at a cost of $21 million per year and deliver on the 90% HPV immunisation target by 2030. You get that immunisation rate up and that eliminates cervical cancer. Invest the $5.5 million a year to deliver the skin cancer prevention and early detection programme, fund a lung cancer screening programme and begin rolling it out over the next three years, lower the bowel screening starting age to 50 and protect children and families from the commercial drivers of cancer. It all makes sense. If you can spend a dollar to save 11, why would you not? And you can say well the money's not there, but it is. It is there within the health budget. Imagine. Imagine if you didn't have to go through that whole gruelling process of trying to treat a cancer which could have been detected early, which could have been prevented in the first place when you look at the HPV immunisation. 

Cancer does not have to be a death sentence anymore. Breast cancer used to be, once you got the news about that, it was basically “set your affairs in order”. But as a result of new treatments, as a result of detection programmes, you no longer see it as a death sentence. 86% of people who are diagnosed with breast cancer survive 10 years or longer now. With skin cancers, if they're detected early, bowel cancer if you have the screening programme and can pick up the polyps that can turn into something life threatening, there is no reason for us to go through the agony of seeing somebody sicken and die. 

There will still be some that are just the anomalies of cancer cells being in your body and it's just your DNA and your bad luck and hopefully next life round you have a better run of it. But for many people it's detectable and if you have the early screening, you find it, the treatments are less severe, less harsh, less gruelling, less expensive. No brainer. I'd absolutely back the Cancer Society's election manifesto on that and I'll ask Chris Hipkins about that, but I'd love to hear from those of you who know exactly what this is all about, who've been there, who've done that, who've either had early detection or because of gaps in the system did not have the early detection and had a poorer outcome, tell me your story. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from News Talks,
he'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
You know it's an election year, don't you. You know
it's an election year when Winston's fomenting merry mischief, when
the leader of the opposition he's happy to put himself
up for an hour of questions on talkback, and when
lobby groups are releasing their election wish lists. The Cancer
Society has released its election manifesto and is calling on

(00:36):
the next government. However, it looks to spend dollars to
save them. For example, if you invest five point five
million dollars a year to deliver a national skin cancer
prevention and early detection program, more than ninety percent will

(00:57):
be prevented. Nearly all are treatable when detected early. Every
dollar invested, according to the Cancer Society, returns eleven dollars
ninety in savings. And when you think of friends and
family have been through cancer treatment, you can understand how
that would stack up. If you don't have to go

(01:18):
through the tortuous and expensive and generally life saving treatments,
you are saving so much, so much of your own energy,
so much time, so much money as a result of
not getting cancer in the first place, or early detection,

(01:39):
as Cancer Society Chief Executive Nicola Coomb told the My
Costing Breakfast this morning. Given that cancers are New Zealand's
biggest killer, it makes sense to invest in early detection
and treatments.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
So one in three of us in New Zealand will
receive a cancer diagnosis in our lifetime. But what's startling
as one in three can also be prevented. So you know,
eighty one people today around New Zealand are going to
hear that they've got cancer. What this manifesto is about
as we want those people to either a not have
that news in the first place, or b be told

(02:12):
it's okay, we've detected it early, your prognosis is good.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
So the Cancer Society also wants to see cervical cervical
cervical screening fully funded at a cost of twenty one
million per year and deliver on the ninety percent HPV
immunization target by twenty thirty. You get that immunization rate
up and that eliminates cervical cancer. Invest the five point

(02:39):
five million early a year to deliver the skin cancer
prevention an early detection program, fund a lung cancer screening
program and begin rolling it out over the next three years,
lower the bowel screening starting age to fifty, and protect
children and families from the commercial drivers of cancer. It
all makes sense. If you can spend a dollar to

(03:02):
save eleven, why would you not. And you can say, well,
the money is not there, but it is. It is
there within the health budget. Imagine, imagine if you didn't
have to go through that whole grueling process of trying
to treat a cancer which could have been detected early,

(03:23):
which could have been prevented in the first place. When
you look at the HPV immunization, cancer does not have
to be a death sentence anymore. Breast cancer used to be.
Once you got the news about that, it was you know,
basically set your affairs in order. But as a result

(03:45):
of new treatments, as a result of detection programs, you
no longer see it as a death sentence. Eighty six
percent of people who are diagnosed with breast cancer survived
ten years or longer now with skin cancers if they're
detected early bowel cancer, if you have the screening program

(04:08):
and can pick up the polyps that can turn into
something threatening, there is no reason for us to go
through the agony of seeing somebody sicken and die. There
will still be some that you know are just the

(04:28):
anomalies of cancer cells being in your body, and it's
just your DNA and your bad luck, and hopefully next
life around you have a better run of it. But
for many people it's detectable, and if you have the
early screening you find it. The treatments are less severe,

(04:49):
less harsh, less grueling, less expensive. No brainer. I'd absolutely
back the Cancer Society's election manifesto on that, and I'll
ask Chris Hipkins about that. But I'd love to hear
from those of you who know exactly what this is
all about. Have been there, have done that have either

(05:10):
had early detection or because of gaps in the system,
did not have the early detection and had a poorer outcome.
Tell me your stories.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
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the podcast on iHeartRadio.