Cartright Collective hosts Cancer Screening Forum
Cartright Collective hosts Cancer Screening Forum
29 July 2015
The Cartwright Collective· is hosting a one-day forum, “The Future of Cancer Screening in New Zealand: Balancing the Benefits and Risks,” onFriday, 7 August 2015 from 9.30 am to 4.30 pm at the Potters Park Events Centre in Auckland.
There will be sessions on screening for cervical cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer and primary prevention. The forum will feature key figures involved in cancer screening and will be chaired by Professor Ron Paterson, Ombudsman and former Health and Disability Commissioner. Speakers include: Professor Ann Richardson, Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, University of Canterbury on the risks and benefits of cancer screening; Dr. Naomi Brewer and Dr. Hazel Lewis on cervical cancer and cervical screening; Associate Professor Diana Sarfati and Dr Marli Gregory on breast cancer and breast cancer screening; Associate Professors Brian Cox and Susan Parry on Colorectal Cancer and Colorectal Screening and the Waitemata pilot; Associate Professor Diana Sarfati on primary prevention and its role in the control of cancer..
Panels of consumers and expert commentators will also share reflections and insights for each session.
In June 1987 Phillida Bunkle and Sandra Coney published an article in Metro magazine alleging unethical research being carried out on unknowing patients at Auckland University’s Post-Graduate School of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at National Women’s Hospital. Government established a judicial inquiry headed by [then] District Court Judge Silvia Cartwright, who published the Report of the Cervical Cancer Inquiry in 1988, widely known as the Cartwright Report after its author.
The Report and its recommendations proved to be a defining moment in the relationship between the health professions, particularly the medical profession, in New Zealand, and the wider public and patients, and a watershed in the history of health care in New Zealand.
One of its recommendations led to the establishment of the National Cervical Screening Programme, which marks the beginning of organised national cancer screening in New Zealand. This forum is an opportunity to take stock of what has been learned and achieved in relation to cancer screening and to ask what the future of cancer screening in New Zealand might look like. Examples of likely issues to be raised will be the growing evidence of ‘over-diagnosis’ of breast cancers through screening, the lack of evidence of benefit of mammography screening to women under the age of 50, the future role of HPV testing and the resulting changes to the National Cervical Screening Programme and the decisions required for colorectal screening, based upon the lessons learned from the colorectal cancer screening pilot.
Forum: “The Future of Cancer Screening in New Zealand: Balancing the Benefits and Risks,” at the Potters Park Events Centre, 164 Balmoral Road, Balmoral, Auckland, Friday 7 August 2015, 9.30 am – 4.30 pm. Cost: $150 $80 for consumers and NGOs (including brown bag lunch and morning/afternoon tea).
ends