Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-18-Speech-2-253"
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"en.20031118.8.2-253"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Byrne, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten mentioned before me that one in four Europeans die every year of cancer, that is almost one million people: alarming figures that mean that we have to be ambitious regarding prevention. What we have before us today is a recommendation. Of course, we know its limits, but this cannot stop us from being ambitious, I have said it and clearly too. This, I believe, is what we are endeavouring to do in the committee and I would like to stress briefly the main points that were improved on the original text.
First of all, lowering the recommended age for mammography screening for breast cancer from 50 to 40, was, I would say, obvious in light of the statistics on prevalence and current practice in several Member States. Then, combining the cervical smear (pap test) with the HPV test to detect cervical cancer. This is a crucial addition since human papilloma virus kills 12 800 women every year in Europe. Figures published by experts show that the introduction of the HPV test would help to reduce this number of deaths by at least a third. Allow me, in passing, to commend the Czech Republic because this accession State is the only State in Europe that currently reimburses for this test. Thirdly, and we are now moving on to the male population, the introduction of screening for prostate cancer with the PSA test. This is also a matter of urgency: prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men and the second cause of death after lung cancer. It can be permanently cured if it remains localised in the prostate. This blood test is very simple, routine and should be recommended from the age of 50 years in our text.
I would also just like to say how important it is that everyone, including the less well informed, has access to screening, which is why I wanted to recommend mobile screening campaigns here. It is also in this same general mindset of informing the public that I would like to conclude by stressing, over and above the precise recommendation and before screening, the importance of primary prevention when talking about cancer. Health education, diet, the fight against smoking, sport, moderate exposure to the sun, like many measures at national level and behaviour at an individual level, will enable us to prevent these avoidable cancers from developing."@en1
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