Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let me just say that rarely do I agree with the honourable member for Shortland, but I agree with everything that she just said other than her criticism of the honourable member for Forrest. The major point that I want to make is that it is vital for all women, regardless of their age, to make sure that they have regular medical checks for ovarian cancer. It is as simple as that. Ignore regular check-ups at your peril. The member for Shortland highlighted the difficulty of diagnosis of this disease, and I support what she said as far as additional research is concerned because it will hopefully bring forward a simpler test which will enable people to work out whether in fact this disease is present. I also urge the government to consider launching a new advertising and awareness campaign to help educate all women of the specifics of this cancer and to highlight very strongly indeed the need for women to discuss this regularly with their general practitioners. Research is important and we need to find a cost-effective test for the condition.

Interestingly enough, today breast cancer is publicly discussed without fear or embarrassment. That was not always the situation, and that openness has saved lives. I spoke in this House some time ago about the need for prostate cancer to also be discussed as openly as we discuss breast cancer, and I believe that is increasingly occurring. Today I repeat the suggestion that lives will be saved if we can have discussion about forms of cancer, including ovarian cancer. It is not something to be hidden; it is something that should come out into the open. If we can talk about it and the need for research into it then there is a higher likelihood that we will discover a test which will easily determine whether women have this insidious condition.

The latest figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show there were 884 deaths from ovarian cancer in 2005. This equates to something like one death every 10 hours from this condition in Australia. The proportion of all cancer deaths attributed to ovarian cancer today is 5.2 per cent, down from 6.1 per cent in 1968, but this figure has remained fairly constant over the last 40 years. This cancer, much like prostate cancer, has the unenviable distinction of most often having no symptoms until it is very much advanced. That is a concern because it can often be present for a considerable period before symptoms manifest themselves clearly, if any do at all. The member for Shortland highlighted this fact quite articulately. Unfortunately, it is common in the majority of cases that, by the time it has been diagnosed, the cancer has already spread to other areas, beginning to grow before the original cancer has even been identified.

Ovarian cancer is one of those cancers which women must be particularly vigilant about and aware of and must be proactive in giving themselves every opportunity to catch it very quickly and as soon as possible when and if it appears. It is a sobering and unacceptable fact that more than half of those women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until the cancer is in the advanced stages, and this fact ensures that the outcomes are not always favourable. Given the absence of noticeable symptoms, coupled with the absence of a standard, cost-effective medical test, the survival rate of those who are diagnosed is often relatively low. Sadly, it is around 35 per cent.

Those who are diagnosed at the early stages have a very good prognosis. Nine out of 10 women are cured and go on to live normal lives. Having said that, I add that it really is important to have research to assist with the discovery of this condition at a stage when women can be cured. Sadly, the complexity of the condition and the fact that so many people are not discovered to have the condition until it is too late mean that so many people who suffer a diagnosis of ovarian cancer have a very poor prognosis.

I think this is one of the issues that should unite both sides of the parliament. It is not a political issue; it is an issue of health. It is an issue, I think, of allocating community resources to achieve positive outcomes. We need a very simple test that will assist women in knowing whether they are at risk and whether they indeed have ovarian cancer. Money is needed and I ask the government to allocate it. (Time expired)

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