Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-05-Speech-4-030"
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"en.20030605.1.4-030"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, the own-initiative report on breast cancer by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities is a balanced, well-considered one. For that my special thanks go to the rapporteur, Mrs Karin Jöns.
The report gives key importance to quality standards and best practice, which Community health policy can help evaluate and which can be extended throughout all the Member States. At present there are enormous disparities in the quality of treatment for breast cancer patients between Member States and regions. Regrettably, this is directly reflected in the chances of survival of women with breast cancer, which is directly affected by the disparity in access to screening, diagnosis and treatment.
According to recent statistics from the World Health Organisation, approximately 80 000 women die from breast cancer in the Union every year. It is the most frequent cancer in women and the most frequent cause of death in middle-aged women in the EU. We could predict that the rise in the standard of living for women in the new Member States and the candidate countries and changes in lifestyle there will make the figures look even worse. There is an urgent need to create a network of national cancer registers to cover the entire enlarged Europe so as to obtain conclusive and comparable data as a basis for research. At present such a register only exists in seven Member States of the Union, in addition to my own country, and so not even half the citizens of the Union are covered.
It is to be hoped that the Commission will target Community resources in particular at more effective research into the causes of breast cancer and forms of treatment as well as methods for assessing the effectiveness of treatment.
In addition to the socio-economic and lifestyle factors the genotype is an important risk factor in breast cancer. To date, two defective genes have been identified as causing breast cancer. The European Patent Office is at present deliberating over an application to patent these breast cancer genes. Granting such a patent would be very harmful as far as research and improvements in treatment are concerned. The decision by the European Patent Office will be tremendously important. It is in the interests of all the European actors, and their duty too, to ensure that the human genetic code is not patented but is freely available for research and the development of medical treatments.
Finally I would like to take this opportunity to thank Commissioner Diamantopoulou for the kind way in which you received the group of Finnish schoolchildren in April and took the trouble to come and meet them personally in Parliament. Your friendly and very warm attitude overwhelmed us all and gave these young people the inspiration and encouragement to face their problems."@en1
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