To mark Pink Ribbon Day, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon today announced that the Australian Government will provide $800,000 a year to fund innovative programs to extend early intervention and support for breast cancer.
The extra funding will go to the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre (NBOCC) for programs to improve early detection and management of breast cancer in younger women, Indigenous women, and in men.
Pink Ribbon Day is the culmination of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and provides a focus for efforts to raise awareness and funds for research into breast cancer.
Australia has made great gains against breast cancer in recent decades. Death rates have reduced and our five-year relative survival rate is 88 per cent for women, up from 72 per cent in 1986.
Nonetheless, more than 12,000 women and 100 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia each year. The Government has demonstrated its commitment to reducing the burden of this disease with a number of announcements in the past two months:
* $31 million over five years to reimburse some of the costs of external breast prostheses for women who have had a mastectomy;
* $2.5 million over five years to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for a jointly-funded study of up to 100,000 women on the impact of the disease;
* $12 million over four years to the McGrath Foundation to recruit, train and employ breast care nurses in 44 communities across Australia.
The Australian Government, with the State and Territory Governments, also funds the national mammographic screening program, BreastScreen Australia.
The Rudd Government is committed to helping tackle cancer, and will continue working to find new ways to support those at the frontline of this challenge.