Cancer death rates are continuing to fall, and relative survival
rates in the 1990s were much better than a decade earlier,
according to two new reports released today from the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare
Cancer in Australia 1998 shows that overall cancer
mortality rates have been declining at an average of 1.7% per year
for men and 1.3% per year for women since 1993.
Cancer Survival in Australia 2001 shows that for men the
survival proportion at 5 years after diagnosis increased from 44%
to 57% from 1982-86 to 1992-97, while for women the increase was
from 55% to 63%.
Approximately 80,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in
Australia each year. About 1 in 3 men and 1 in 4 women will develop
the disease before the age of 75.
Head of the AIHW Health Registers and Cancer Monitoring Unit,
John Harding, said that cancer was still the second major cause of
death after circulatory diseases, accounting for 29% of deaths in
men and 25% in women.
The most common cancers found in men were prostate cancer (9,869
new cases in 1998), bowel cancer (6,131) and lung cancer (5,307).
In women the most common cancers were breast cancer (10,665), bowel
cancer (5,158) and melanoma (3,493).
The 5-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer was 83%.
The 5-year survival rate for breast cancer was 84%.
Cancers with the highest relative survival rates for men were
testicular cancer (95%), thyroid cancer (95%), and melanoma (90%).
In women the highest survival rates were for thyroid cancer (95%),
melanoma (95%) and Hodgkin's lymphoma (84%).
Cancers with the lowest 5-year relative survival rates for males
and females were pancreatic cancer (5%), lung cancer (11% and 14%
respectively), stomach cancer (23% and 25%), and brain cancer
(24%).
Mr Harding said that there was a sharp fall in the number of new
cases of melanoma in 1998, contrasting with steady increases during
the previous decade.
'The incidence rates for melanoma in Australia are still among
the highest in the world, so there will be great interest among
public health professionals in seeing whether the fall in skin
cancer cases continues,' he said.
'Five-year survival rates after a diagnosis of melanoma, already
very high, increased significantly between 1982-86 and 1992-97-by 7
percentage points for men and almost 4 percentage points for
women.'
Other findings from the two reports include:
- Among the limited number of countries for which cancer survival
data are available, Australia and the United States of America have
the highest 5-year relative survival rates. For people diagnosed
during 1992-97, the 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers
for females was 63.4% in Australia compared with 62.3% for the USA,
and for men 56.8% in Australia compared with 61.2% in the USA.
- New cases of prostate cancer in 1998 continued their fall from
a peak in 1994. This coincides with a reduction in the use of
prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests. One-third of these cancers
occur in men over 75. Death rates remain stable.
- Cigarette smoking is estimated to have directly caused 10,506
new cases of cancer (13% of all new cases) and 7,068 deaths (21% of
cancer deaths).
- Age is a strong predictor of survival chances-men and women
diagnosed with cancer in their 20s had a better 5-year relative
survival rate than any other age group (83% and 87% respectively).
Men and women in their 90s had 5-year relative survival rates of
30% and 32% respectively.
- Both Cancer in Australia 1998 and Cancer Survival in Australia
2001 are based on data collected by the State and Territory Cancer
Registries.
22 November 2001
Further information: Mr John Harding, AIHW, tel. 02 6244
1140
For media copies of the reports: Publications Officer, AIHW, tel.
02 6244 1132
Availability: Check the AIHW
Publications Catalogue for availability of Cancer in Australia
1998, Cancer
Survival in Australia 2001 Part 1 and Cancer Survival in
Australia Part 2.