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Verbatim report of proceedings
Thursday, 5 June 2003 - Strasbourg OJ edition

Breast cancer
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  Boogerd-Quaak (ELDR).(NL) Mr President, I should also like to warmly congratulate Mrs Jöns on this report. My group spoke very appreciatively of it, despite the fact that a number of Members feel that some parts go too far in the direction of subsidiarity and for this reason abstained from the vote in committee. All the members of my group regard the report, as such, as being of high quality. I think that that is very important.

I also have appreciation for the Commissioner and her vision of how things should proceed with this report. She has said that it is important to gather and to record knowledge. This view I share entirely. Member States will themselves certainly become better acquainted with their own weaknesses if they look across the border at others. That is by no means a luxury. If we look at the report closely, we see that there is a 60% greater chance of developing breast cancer in Western Europe than in Eastern Europe. We really must learn from that. Why is this so? If we look at the growth in the number of women with breast cancer, again there are significant differences. In the European Union, for example, the number of women with breast cancer is showing the greatest growth in my own country. There must be reasons for this that we can find.

In the report we read for example that women from urban areas are more prone to breast cancer than women from rural areas. A lot of research is therefore needed to see what factors really do have an impact on breast cancer. Is it actually true that the effect of using oestrogens is to increase the risk of breast cancer rather than to reduce it? The answers to many of these questions remain unsatisfactory and I think that it is excellent that where we can all learn from research we do it collectively at a European level. This is after all the most useful way of spending the money.

I also greatly appreciate the volunteers and the voluntary organisations that have done much to improve the quality of the treatment. Personally I am a great advocate of treatment in breast centres. Not only because of the greater chance of survival there, but also because of the total approach to the problem that women face. For women it is after all in some cases a violation of their body. A violation of the way in which they feel they lead their life as a woman. For a long time little attention was paid to this and we looked too much at the technical side of the disease.

Mr President, I think it extremely important that we should continue with what the Commissioner has proposed. I also appreciate that she will be bringing forward a plan to provide information about cancer in general on the Internet. Mrs Oomen-Ruijten has also made a number of important points. I therefore hope that we shall soon see all this in place and that the conference that has been requested will also be organised quickly.

 
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