Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is by far the most common cancer
diagnosed in Australia, but we don't know just how common it is,
according to a report jointly released today by the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and Cancer Australia.
'In 2008, around 434,000 people will be diagnosed with one or
more non-melanoma skin cancers in Australia, and data from 2006
show that there were over 400 deaths in that year from NMSC,' said
Prof David Roder, commenting on the report.
'But unlike other cancers, NMSC is not reportable by law to
cancer registries. As a result, incidence and prevalence statistics
are not routinely available,' he said.
The AIHW report, Non-melanoma skin cancer: General practice
consultations, hospitalisation and mortality, is intended to
fill some of the gaps in data availability by analysing the impact
these cancers have on doctors' workloads, hospital inpatient
admissions and mortality.
'It found that there were an estimated 950,000 GP visits per
year (between April 2005 and March 2007) for NMSC. As a proportion
of all GP consultations, male visits for NMSC were almost double
that of females,' said Melissa Goodwin of the AIHW's Health
Registers and Cancer Monitoring Unit.
Hospital stays for NMSC more than doubled between 1993-94 and
2006-07, from 35,833 to 79,792.
'Again, we found that rates for males were much higher. In this
case hospital rates were almost 75% higher than for females,' she
said.
As with many other cancers, non-melanoma skin cancer mortality
rates were significantly higher in outer regional areas and
significantly lower in the most socioeconomically advantaged
areas.
The report showed that while incidence rates, general
practitioner visits, and hospital inpatient rates all increased
over time, there was no corresponding increase in mortality
rates.
Wednesday 15 October 2008
Further information: Ms Melissa Goodwin, AIHW,
tel. 02 6244 1041, mob. 0407 915 851 or Dr Joanne Ramadge, Cancer
Australia, 02 6289 1430
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for the availability of Non-melanoma skin
cancer: General practice consultations, hospitalisation and
mortality.