Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all to the Third International Symposium on the Molecular Biology of Breast Cancer here in my home town, Molde.

Cancer is a major public health problem. At some point during our lifetimes, most of us will either be diagnosed with cancer ourselves, or will suffer the tragedy of a close relative or friend developing this illness. To be personal: I lost my mother here in Molde almost 30 years ago because of breast cancer. My mother-in-law also had breast cancer and I have two sisters-in-law – both still alive – who have had it.

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer. In Norway, this is in fact the most common form of cancer in women, accounting for about 23 per cent of cancer diagnoses.

I am therefore very glad to see so many specialists in the field gathered here today to discuss the causes, prevention and treatment of breast cancer.

The prognosis for a person diagnosed with cancer depends on a number of factors, and early detection is considered crucial. One way of detecting breast cancer at an early stage is screening.

Norway established a breast cancer screening programme in 1995. To begin with, this was run as a pilot project in four counties. In 1998, it was incorporated in our five-year National Cancer Plan (1998-2003). The screening programme has since been gradually expanded, and now covers the whole country.

Through the programme, which is administered by the Cancer Registry of Norway, all women between 50 and 69 years of age are invited to have a mammogram taken every two years.

The programme has not yet been fully evaluated, but we do already have some important results. I would like to highlight three of these:

• About 80 per cent of the women in question take part in the screening programme.
• About 7 out of 1000 women screened are diagnosed with cancer.
• In most cases the diagnosis is made at an early stage, which means the tumours are smaller, there is less spreading, the treatment required is less comprehensive, and there is a 30 per cent better prognosis.

Almost two years ago, the previous minister of health appointed a committee to propose a new national strategy for cancer treatment and care in Norway. The aim was to follow up the National Cancer Plan.

The committee’s report was submitted last summer. It recommends a number of detailed measures to improve cancer prevention, treatment and research. The committee has, not surprisingly, recommended that the current national screening programme should continue. It has also recommended that a common strategy should be developed for evaluating new screening programmes.

After a broad consultation process, the committee’s proposals are currently being considered by the Ministry for Health and Care Services.

Cancer is, as you all know, a devastating illness that causes anxiety, pain and loss to a great many people.

But we have also won some of the battles against cancer. Research is rapidly leading to new treatment methods that make it possible for more and more people either to be cured or to live meaningful lives with a cancer diagnosis.

For those who cannot be cured, research has also helped us to alleviate pain and other symptoms more effectively. Research on identifying the causes and developing treatments should be placed high on the agenda in all health systems.

I am particularly pleased that this conference on breast cancer is being held here in Molde, and that it is attended by so many distinguished specialists in the field. I hope that all of you will return home having learnt something new, something that will benefit the patients who depend on you.

I also hope that the conference will be a means of spreading the latest knowledge and experiences on breast cancer to the health authorities, providing us with a better basis for formulating national policies in this field.

I wish you a very successful conference. I hope you will also have the chance to see something of this lovely town and its surroundings.

Thank you.