Senate debates

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Statements by Senators

Prostate Cancer

1:54 pm

Photo of Kate LundyKate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise today to update the Senate on prostate cancer. In Australia there are about 18,500 incidences of prostate cancer reported each year and about 3,400 Australians die from this disease each year. In my home city of Canberra, between 570 and 770 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year, and about 100 members of our community succumb to the disease annually.

Prostate cancer is by far the most common cancer affecting men and indeed the most prevalent cancer in Australia. As well as those directly diagnosed, prostate cancer can also affect the lives of loved ones and others around them quite profoundly.

This year has been a very positive year for prostate cancer research. Research on genes that cause prostate cancer have led to a number of discoveries about how it develops and may help in the discovery of future treatment and cure options. Contracting prostate cancer is a tragedy at any age but, if it comes early and remains undetected, the results can be dire. This year a newly discovered gene called HOXB13 has been discovered that has been linked to early onset prostate cancer that runs in families. Other genes have been found which can double or triple the risk of prostate cancer.

Australia is at the cutting edge of prostate cancer research, and one such researcher is Dr Shahneen Sandhu from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. Dr Sandhu this year received the John Mills Young Investigator Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. She is working on an important clinical trial that will identify patients with prostate cancers that harbour underlying defective genes and then exploit those defects to kill tumour cells. The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, or the PCFA, also provides professional development grants to give nurses more opportunities to expand their skills and knowledge of the disease.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia is a vital and important community organisation. It runs thriving support networks, including new groups established this year in Sydney, the Central Coast, Taree and Perth. These support groups are attended by medical and allied health professionals as well as volunteers from across the community.

Prostate cancer has a profound effect on everyone: loved ones, family, friends, work colleagues et cetera. The Prostate Cancer Foundation acknowledges that we are a culturally and linguistically diverse society and, for this reason, has resources available in five community languages: Italian, Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic. I commend them for this.

The PCFA also hosted two gay and bisexual men's health forums this year in Lismore and Canberra with support groups for gay and bisexual men being set up in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin and Western Australia.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia organises and receives the support of some innovative fundraising events such as the Pirtek Fishing Challenge, which attracted 8,500 people and raised about $17,000 for the foundation's research and charity works. They also organised challenges such as a world-record attempt for the largest stubby cooler collection, which raised about $7,000.

It was my privilege to participate, albeit all too briefly, along with my colleague Warren Snowdon MP, in the latest initiative to raise funds organised by the ADF under the inspired leadership of the Chief of the Defence Force. I would like to acknowledge the work of Gail and Chris Dunne, who are the founders of the Long Ride. It is a motorbike ride culminating this year at Uluru and, as they make their way around rural and regional Australia, they will be spreading the message of this year's theme: increasing awareness of prostate cancer. The message is for men who are notoriously reticent—as we know, having participated in the Senate men's health inquiry some years ago—to talk about their personal health matters and ask their GP to have the PSA test and get their prostate checked.

I would also like to commend Guy Blackburn and Paul Brealey for their coordinating efforts and acknowledge Dr Brendan Nelson, now the Director of the Australian War Memorial, a former Howard government minister, for formally launching the Long Ride last Friday. Australian Defence Force riders are moving around the country towards the centre of Australia, raising money and awareness along the way. I believe they will save lives in doing so.

I would like to commend all colleagues on both sides of the House for their contribution to and efforts for fundraising for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and for our mutual efforts to raise awareness about this chronic disease.