Cancer Deaths On The Increase

Media Release From The Royal Australasian College Of Surgeons

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA/Sept 04, 2001/MediaNet International-AsiaNet/ -- Cancer has now overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in New Zealand men and women and the death rate from cancer in New Zealand is the third highest in the world.

Even more worrying are the statistics that the incidence of cancer is expected to increase by 40 per cent in 2005, compared to 1994 and at the same time there will be a 27 per cent increase in cancer deaths in the New Zealand

The state of cancer care in New Zealand will be one of the major issues discussed at the Annual Royal Australasian College of Surgeon 's Meeting, where the theme of the three-day meeting is Surgical Cancer Care into the 21st century.

The cream of New Zealand's surgeons will join international surgical cancer experts at the Scientific meeting which starts in Palmerston North tomorrow and finishing late Friday.

Internationally renowned cancer specialist Dr Murray Brennan, now the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the world's largest cancer centre, the prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, is returning home to deliver a number of papers on the latest in the management of cancer.

As many cancer treatments are surgically based the meeting will be looking at what latest treatments are available now and what could be available in the future.

Some of the topics of interest include:
* The most recent advances in the treatment of some of the most common cancers like breast prostrate colo-rectal and vascular cancer.
* Screening for cancer does it work or not and should there be more screening for cancers like prostate or colorectal cancer. .
* Why we are waiting so long for radiotherapy and why delays in radiotherapy have caused a change in breast cancer management in New Zealand.
* Giving the bad news in Breast Cancer
* The latest on Melanoma, New Zealand has one of the highest rates in the world

Cancer care will not be the only feature of the meeting plastic surgery, urology and general surgery are also included in the program. Some of the topics of interest in this part of the program include:
* New Advances in the Management of Major Burns.
* Cosmetic Surgery in New Zealand, where does it stand.
* State of the art skin substitutes and tissue engineering, where are we at.
* Computer imaging and what it has done for forensic medicine
* White tail spider bites.

The New Zealand Minister of Social Welfare, Mr Steve Maharey will open the meeting. Dr Brennan will give the first keynote speech, the Sir Gordon Bell Lecture. Journalists are welcome to attend.

ENDS

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