Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
National Cancer Strategy: Discussion
I got a paper prepared by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service. I know it was only prepared in ten days. It is a comparison with other jurisdictions about cancer research. In Denmark, the number of new clinical trials in 2016 was 0.0049% of the population whereas in Ireland it is 0.002%, so we are 50% lower than Denmark, which has a similar population to Ireland. Denmark seems to have a very co-ordinated system. That report stated that barriers to trial participation are structural, clinical, attitudinal and differ according to demographic and socioeconomic factors. That finding was in a report produced in 2016 in a research project in the United States. It is important to co-ordinate what is going on and, if possible, to double the numbers. The witnesses' contribution this morning can help us to move towards that.
No comments