Urgent need to improve cancer outcomes by prioritising early detection in Ireland

“The Government urgently needs to prioritise early cancer detection so we don’t start falling behind in progress,” said Marie Keating Foundation CEO Liz Yeates at a breakfast briefing today on early cancer detection, at which the Foundation launched its Supporting Early Cancer Detection report.

At the ‘Early Detection Saves Lives’ briefing, the Marie Keating Foundation called for increased education around early cancer symptoms and the expansion of cancer screening programmes in Ireland. Lack of symptom awareness, long waiting lists, the impact of the pandemic, inequalities in access to treatment, an overcrowded health system and lack of screening programmes were cited at the breakfast briefing as contributory factors to why cancer patients in Ireland are not given the best chance of surviving cancer.