Foundation Disappointed By National Health Announcement – Nothing Mentioned About NZ's Prostate Cancer Record

“It’s great to see policies that advocate for more resources being put into cancer treatment. We absolutely applaud and support policy like this that can make a difference to people’s lives. These treatments can be a lifeline for those who are dealing with advanced cancer and we encourage all political parties to continue to do more of that,” Prostate Cancer Foundation New Zealand President, Danny Bedingfield said today.

“However, we’re dismayed at National actively choosing to not fund prostate cancer drugs via the means they propose, despite the disease being NZ’s most commonly diagnosed cancer and PHARMAC’s assessment that these drugs are cost effective and desperately needed to address identified health needs. 

“Not funding the prostate cancer drugs that have been languishing on PHARMAC’s Options For Investment list for years leaves men with advanced prostate cancer suffering unnecessarily and dying before their time.

“Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men after lung and above bowel, and yet there is nothing in this policy to address it.

“If they are not going to fund drugs to treat advanced prostate cancer, they could at least give men the chance to access curative treatment before these drugs become necessary, and their announcement is also cruelly silent on this.

“Early detection of cancer simply would mean better clinical outcomes and lives saved. Over 4000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year and 700 unfortunately die.

“A national early-detection scheme can be leveraged off existing infrastructure in place for breast, cervical and bowel screening programmes. We’re asking political parties to support the implementation of a pilot scheme similar to the European Union’s, which would be a low risk, sensible way to learn, and then scale-up from there.”

“In the meantime, while we wait for a system that can prevent men from experiencing advanced prostate cancer, whoever is the government after the election needs to move with urgency to provide treatments for men with prostate cancer that men in comparable systems overseas, like Australia, have had funded access to for years.

“We have written to and been engaging with all political parties, including the National Party, on adopting policy to see an initial trial undertaken for early detection of prostate cancer, and further investment in medicines, diagnostic tools such as MRIs and other useful health infrastructure across the country. 

Mr Bedingfield says significant advances in technology and improved diagnostic methods mean previous risks from prostate treatment have been reduced, and the latest research clearly shows that a comprehensive early-detection programme holds the promise of halving mortality from the disease.

“There has been a lot of discussion on Men’s health. But now is that time to commit to some action if we are serious about making a difference. We encourage the National Party to review their health policies and include at least an initial trial of prostate cancer screening in their election promises, as well as funding of those medicines PHARMAC has determined men in NZ desperately need,” Mr Bedingfield concluded.

Some background on early detection programmes in New Zealand:

Cancer kills. Early detection of cancer reduces the number of people who die from it. Whatever the circumstance, there are always better clinical outcomes if the existence of cancer is known earlier. New Zealand agrees with this and currently takes action on some cancers. For example, every year:

Breast cancer: 3400 [1] women are diagnosed, with 600 deaths. A comprehensive early detection programme was started in 2017.

Colorectal cancer: 1500 women and 1700 men are diagnosed, with 1200 deaths[2]. A comprehensive early detection programme was started in 2017.

Cervical cancer: 160 women are diagnosed, with about 50[3] deaths. A comprehensive early detection programme was started in 1991.

And because New Zealand values lives so much, we also have a significant $61 million [4] “Road to Zero” [5] campaign underway seeking to reduce the number of deaths on the road to zero. In 2022, 380 [6] people died on New Zealand roads.

And of course, the Government took significant measures to prevent deaths from Covid-19 from January 2020 till now, which has seen 2716 [7] covid 19 deaths, and has a budget of circa $61 billion [8] to prevent deaths and support the community [9].

Over the same time period, around 2100 men died of prostate cancer. Many of these deaths will have been premature.

So the Government accepts it is worthwhile to invest early to save New Zealanders’ lives.

BUT, when it comes to prostate cancer this appears to be ignored.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer (apart from skin cancers) in Kiwi men – more than 4000 [10] men are diagnosed and over 700 [11] die from prostate cancer every year.

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