Rural Australia would soon have improved cancer services as Kevin Rudd has committed $560 million for doing this.

For giving regional patients care closer to home, existing cancer centers would be upgraded or new centers would be built.

He said, “Cancer affects thousands of Australian families every year - 100,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed every year, and around 40,000 people die each year from various forms of this disease. The initiative is part of a $1.3 billion investment in improving cancer infrastructure announced in the 2009-10 budget.”

The existing radiotherapy bunkers at Townsville Hospital would be doubled to six, a PET/CT scanner would be given, linear accelerators would be increased to five, and 26 additional chemotherapy chairs would be delivered. The Prime Minister announced $67.5 million to enhance all of these that would further improve the Townsville Cancer Centre.

There were other announcements made by labor ministers and parliamentary secretaries at cancer facilities across Victoria, NSW and Western Australia for upgrading the facilities.