One breast cancer patient in 20 had to wait between 22 and 48 weeks for treatment, an analysis of waiting times for cancer treatment in the Republic reveals.
The analysis also shows that the average waiting time for men with prostate cancer was 15 weeks, although 5 per cent had to wait between 11 and 17 months.
The figures, contained in a 1999 analysis of 2,400 cancer patients, show that those with bowel and lung cancer wait an average of eight weeks for treatment. The figures are the most up-to-date available.
The analysis, out by Dr Harry Comber and colleagues at the National Cancer Registry, found the average waiting time from GP referral to first treatment in hospital was four weeks for breast cancer.
It also found regional variations in the time spent on cancer waiting lists. The longest wait for lung cancer patients occurred in the Eastern Regional Health Authority and in the South Eastern Health Board. Breast cancer patients in the Western Health Board had the shortest waiting period from referral to treatment.
"Older patients and those with more advanced cancers seemed to have shorter waiting times, an indication that the system can adapt and prioritise patients according to need," the authors said.
Noting that the delays were short in most cases, the researchers said waiting times would not have affected prognosis for individual patients.
Meanwhile yesterday, addressing the All-Ireland Cancer Conference in Cork, Dr Peter Greenwald of the cancer prevention division of the US National Cancer Institute described the latest research in pharmaceutical prevention.
Dr Greenwald said preventive use of the drug Finasteride produced a 25 per cent reduction in the instance of prostate cancer. "We have proved that the primary prevention of prostate cancer is possible."
He also said the use of the drug Raloxifene in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis had shown a one-quarter reduction in the incidence of breast cancer.