Contents
What is cancer?
Cancer is a group of several hundred diseases in which abnormal cells are not destroyed by normal metabolic processes but instead proliferate and spread out of control. Cancers are distinguished from each other by the specific type of cell involved and the place in the body in which the disease begins.
What is the difference between a malignant and a benign tumour?
Tumours can be benign (not a cancer) or malignant (a cancer). Benign tumours do not invade other tissues or spread to other parts of the body, although they can expand to interfere with health structures. The main features of a malignant tumour (cancer) are its ability to grow in an uncontrolled way and to invade and spread to other parts of the body (metastasise).
What legislation deals with cancer data?
The registration of cancer is required by law, usually under the Public Health Acts, in each State and Territory. These registries report in various formats on cancers in their respective jurisdictions and supply information for national collation through the National Cancer Statistics Clearing House (NCSCH).
What is the ACD?
The Australian Cancer Database (ACD) is a database maintained by the Australasian Association of Cancer Registries (AACR) and the AIHW. It is a national collection of cancer data. Data for incidence are currently available to 2006 and for mortality to 2007.
Which cancers are the most common in Australia?
The following information applies to the year 2005.
There were 100,514 new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2005, the first time this number has reached six figures. The five most common cancers were prostate cancer (16,349 cases), colorectal cancer (13,076), breast cancer (12,265), melanoma of the skin (10,684) and lung cancer (9,182). These five cancers accounted for over 61% of all diagnoses.
The most common cancers for males and females are largely the same, and occur in mostly the same order, except for the sex-specific cancers. For males the only sex-specific cancer to show in the top 10 is prostate cancer and it is by far the most common. In females this role is taken by breast cancer (which can occur in males but is rare). However, females also have two other sex-specific cancers in the top 10, namely uterine cancer and ovarian cancer.
What are the major types of cancer?
Although there are hundreds of different cancers, there are five major categories: carcinoma, sarcoma, myeloma, leukaemia and lymphoma. There are also some cancers of mixed types.
Carcinoma: Malignancy (ie cancer) of the internal or external lining of the body. For example, squamous or epidermoid carcinoma of skin, lip, tongue, cervix.
Sarcoma: Malignancy of connective tissue origin. For example, bone, cartilage, skeletal muscle, fibrous tissue, neurongenic connective tissue.
Myeloma: Malignancy of plasma cell series (cells which produce some of the proteins found in the blood). These cells are generally found in the bone marrow.
Lymphoma: Cancer of cells of the lymph nodes or of similar cells which may occur elsewhere.
Leukaemia: Malignancy of the blood-forming elements of the bone marrow.
Mixed types: Cancer composed of different tissue types. The type components may be within one category or from different categories.
What is a cancer registry?
A cancer registry can be defined as an organised system for the collection, storage, analysis and interpretation of data on persons with cancer. Each state and territory in Australia maintains a cancer registry. A national minimum data set from the state and territory registries is provided to the National Cancer Statistics Clearing House to enable national trends in cancer to be monitored. Information on the data items can be found at http://www.aihw.gov.au/data-catalogue/.