People living in poorer socio-economic areas are almost 10% less likely to recover from cancer than their counterparts in wealthier locations, a conference in Dublin has heard.
The comparison was made at a Joint Euro-American Forum on Cancer at Farmleigh House in Dublin today, during which Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly also said Ireland is a "laggard" when it comes to cancer clinical trials.
Professor of cancer biology at UCD and member of the All-Ireland Cancer Institute William Gallagher said that while progress is being made there are still clear inequalities in cancer care in Ireland.
Professor Gallagher said the cancer survival rate for people in the "least deprived" socio-economic groups after five years currently stands at 68%.
However, he said among the "most deprived" socio-economic groups the five year survival rate is 59%.
During the same conference, Minister Donnelly said in his view Ireland is a "laggard" when it comes to clinical trials for cancer treatments.
He said while Ireland talks "a good talk" on the issue, in his view "we don't have the infrastructure we need".
"We don't have the unique patient identifiers. We don’t have decent e-health systems and there is other infrastructure that we need to have in place.
"We shouldn’t be a laggard in clinical trials, we’re one of the wealthiest most advanced countries anywhere in the world," he said.
At the same event, Irish Cancer Society chief executive Averil Power said one in two people in Ireland may be affected by cancer at some point in their lives.
She said more cancer research is of benefit, and that increased public awareness of ways to reduce the risk of cancer will help save lives.
The event comes as a new report found that cancer is the "single biggest killer" in Ireland, with more than 9,600 deaths a year.
The report from the European Cancer Organisation (ECO) and the Irish Cancer Society said the disease is responsible for 30% of deaths in the country each year.
The ECO said its data from its online repository, the European Cancer Pulse, "captures evidence of progress but also highlights areas that need scrutiny, particularly those around cancer inequalities".
It said Ireland "needs to be more ambitious in preventing cancer".
The report said while the country is "doing well on HPV vaccination, it is falling behind on its targets for tobacco and alcohol consumption".
