According to a study published early online in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, deaths from cancer have steadily decreased over the past 25 years in Australia while cancer incidence rates have risen.

In Australian, cancer has the greatest overall impact on individual’s health. Before the age of 85, one in two Australians will develop cancer and 1 in 5 will die. An up-to-date picture of cancer in Australia has been produced by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare based on its cancer data holdings and regular reports, including statistics on survival, participation in national cancer screening programs, incidence, and mortality.

The investigation provides trends from 1982 to 2007, data from 2007, as well as estimations for 2010. In 2007, 39,884 individuals died from cancer in Australia and a total of 108,368 individuals were newly diagnosed (excluding squamous cell carcinoma of the skin and basal). Among men, prostate cancer was the most prevalent cancer diagnosed, while women were most often diagnosed with breast cancer. In both men and women, lung cancer was the most prevalent cause of cancer death.

When the team examined trends, they discovered that from 1982 to 2007 the number of new cancer cases diagnosed each year for both men and women increased, partly due to growth of the population as well as aging. The overall cancer incidence rate in women increased from 1982 to the early 1990s where it remained somewhat stable. For men, the overall cancer incidence rate increased from 1982 to 1994. >From 1994, the overall cancer incidence rates for men declined until the late 1990s, when rates began to increase again. For both men and women, cancer death rates have decreased steadily from 1982 to 2997, meaning that since the 1980s the 5-year survival rates for several cancers have improved considerably.

The study discovered certain differences in death rates and cancer incidence in recent years. Particularly, the overall incidence rate of cancer for non-indigenous Australians was lower than that of indigenous Australians, while the overall cancer death rate was higher. According to the study several factors may contribute to the increased death rates in indigenous Australians, such as being diagnosed at an advanced stage, higher number of other illnesses, as well as less uptake of cancer treatments.

The researchers extrapolated their discoveries to 2010, in order to provide a more up-to-date picture of the cancer burden in Australia. In 2010, 113,700 novel cases of cancer (excluding squamous cell carcinoma of the skin and basal) were expected to be diagnosed. 63,200 of the 113,700 new cases were expected to be in men, while 50,500 were expected to be in women. These figures represent a 2% increase in cancer diagnosis in males from 2007, and a 9% increase in females, primarily due to increasing population size and aging. Prostate cancer, breast cancer, bowel cancer and melanoma of the skin in males and females were expected to remain the most prevalently diagnosed cancers in 2010.

Furthermore, the team examined participation rates in Australia’s national screening programs for cervical, bowel, and breast cancers. They found that between 2007-2008 more than 3.6 million women participated in the National Cervical Screening Program, a participation rate of 61% in the target age group of 20-69 years. During the same period, more than 1.6 million women had a screening mammogram through BreastScreen Australia, a participation rate of 55% in the target age group of 50-69 years. In addition, in 2008 nearly 280,000 individuals (40% of people invited) took part in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. Further information about these programs can be found at http://www.cancerscreening.gov.au

Written by: Petra Rattue