Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to raise the profile of the need for men to continue to have regular check-ups and to commend the good work being done by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia in promoting greater awareness of prostate cancer. As we have heard tonight, every year 18,000 Australian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and approximately 3,000 will die from it. Prostate cancer occurs mainly in men over 50 years old and is the most common male cancer after skin cancer. The specific causes of prostate cancer remain unknown. A man’s risk of developing prostate cancer is related to his age, genetics, race, diet and lifestyle as well as medications. The primary risk factor is age, as prostate cancer is uncommon in men who are less than 45 years old. However, men who have a brother or father with prostate cancer have twice the usual risk of developing the disease. Prostate cancer risk can be decreased by modifying these known risk factors, such as decreasing the intake of animal fat and meat and increasing the fibre content in one’s diet.

Jill Margo wrote in the Australian in November 2002 on comments from Max Gardner, the chairman of the foundation’s support and advocacy committee:

… most men are poorly informed and only at diagnosis do they realise that early detection would have been their best hope of obtaining a cure.

A divisive argument continues about whether early detection makes a difference:

This is a central debate in the management of prostate cancer.

One side holds that, as the cure can be worse than the cancer, there is no point to early detection. The other side contends that early detection and treatment is the only way the death rate from prostate cancer can be reduced. However, there are three universally agreed points:

… that the cancer can be cured if it is treated while wholly confined to the prostate gland; that once the disease spreads beyond the prostate it can no longer be cured; and that death from prostate cancer is almost always slow and painful.

As Jill Margo writes, these three points ‘should help men think more clearly about their disease’, because unless treated the disease has painful symptoms and is invariably fatal. The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia is an umbrella organisation for prostate cancer support groups from all over Australia and seeks the views of thousands of men who have experienced diagnosis and treatment. The article ends:

To those who are debatingwhether to be tested for prostate cancer, Gardner says it is well to remember that every man with advanced prostate cancer greatly regrets not being diagnosed while the cancer was curable.

The health system expenditure on prostate cancer in 2001 was $201 million, making prostate cancer the fourth most expensive cancer to treat. The majority of this expenditure, some $97 million, was for non-hospital pharmaceuticals while some $58 million was spent on treating admitted patients in hospital, usually associated with surgical procedures, and $10 million was for out-of-hospital medical costs such as GP or specialist visits and pathology. Government funding for existing programs for prostate cancer includes the Australian Centre of Excellence in Male Reproductive Health, which aims to increase the knowledge base of health professionals and the community generally on prostate cancer. The centre specifically develops and implements professional and community education programs, undertakes research on men’s sexual and reproductive issues and provides information in the form of publications and newsletters, and via their website. Since 2000, funding of over $6.4 million has been provided to the Australian Centre of Excellence in Male Reproductive Health.

Funding for research into prostate cancer is also directed to the National Health and Medical Research Council. Since 2003 the government has awarded over $29.4 million in research grants, over $8.2 billion for the 2007 year. I note that funding of $15 million was announced by the government in 2008-09 to provide for two dedicated prostate cancer specific research centres to develop improved diagnostic tests and treatment, allocating $5 million for three years. I would strongly urge all men to become more aware of prostate cancer and undertake regular testing with their GP by both the PSA test—the prostate specific antigen test that can detect abnormal prostate cells by a simple blood test—and a physical examination, which can pick up some cancers that are missed by the blood test.

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