Breast cancer on the rise in Australia

ELEANOR HALL: Unhealthy lifestyles and women having children later in life are being blamed for an alarming rise in breast cancer amongst Australian women.

A report conducted by the National Breast Cancer Centre indicates that over the past two decades the incidence of breast cancer has risen by almost 4 per cent every year.

Dr Helen Zorbas is Director of the centre, and she's been speaking to our reporter, Michael Edwards.

HELEN ZORBAS: There are more and more women diagnosed every year with this disease, and as I say, the incidence doesn't look like abating as we look into the future.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: What accounts for it?

HELEN ZORBAS: There are a number of factors that could account for the increase that we're seeing, and it's not something that is isolated to Australia, but something that we're seeing throughout the world, particularly in the western countries.

It's possibly related to lifestyle factors, and this would include factors like the lower numbers of children that women are having these days, that they're having them later in life, that they are breastfeeding them less. If we make those comparisons with women in under-developed countries, you know, there are quite stark differences.

There's also other factors such that overall we're more obese. We tend to have more sedentary lifestyles, we exercise less, and we are having, or consuming more alcohol.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Do we have the medical infrastructure to deal with the increasing problem?

HELEN ZORBAS: Well, I think what we're seeing more and more is that the treatments are changing so much that the actual time within the hospital system tends to be constant, but it's just different treatments that are improving survival for women quite dramatically.

But certainly the demands in terms of the diagnostic areas are going to be needing to be improved in order to cope with the increasing numbers that we are predicting will be diagnosed within the next five to 10 years.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: So is it fair to say the bad news is there's going to be more cases of breast cancer, the good news is you've got a higher chance of surviving it?

HELEN ZORBAS: That's exactly right.

Although there will be more and more women who are diagnosed, there will be fewer women who are likely to die of their breast cancer, as we look into the future.

And that's certainly good news, and the report really also highlights the fact that Australian women are faring better than their counterparts in terms of survival and mortality than other women in very well developed countries, such as the USA, the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's Dr Helen Zorbas from the Breast Cancer Centre.
source:www.abc.net.au