Overview

Cancer is a major cause of illness in Australia and has a substantial social and economic impact on individuals, families and the community. Findings from the recent Australian Burden of Disease Study showed that cancer as a disease group was the leading cause of burden in Australia in 2011, accounting for 19% of the total disease burden.

More reports and statistics on cancer can be found under Cancer screening.

Latest findings

93% of people who provided residential and occupational information were assessed as having been exposed to asbestos At the end of 2012, 410,530 people were alive who had been diagnosed with cancer in the previous 5 years From 1982–2017, new cases of mesothelioma rose steadily—135 to 592 cases for males and 22 to 118 cases for females In 2011, cancer was the leading cause of disease burden in Australia There were 710 new cases of mesothelioma reported to the AMR with a date of diagnosis during 2017 Lung cancer is estimated to be the leading cause of cancer death in 2017 Between 1985–1989 and 2010–2014, the 5-year relative survival rate for mesothelioma averaged 5.4% For 2016, 651 deaths of people with mesothelioma (with any recorded cause of death) were recorded on the AMR In 2017, Western Australia recorded the highest rate of mesothelioma (4.9 cases per 100,000 people) In 2017, an estimated 47,753 people will die from cancer Five year relative survival from all cancers combined increased from 48% in 1984–1988 to 68% in 2009–2013 In 2017, an estimated 134,174 new cases of cancer (excluding BCC and SCC) will be diagnosed in Australia The incidence rate of mesothelioma rose from 1.2 to a peak of 3.2 cases per 100,000 population from 1982 to 2017 Breast cancer in females is estimated to be the most common cancer in Australia in 2017

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Highlights