Summary
Cancer data in Australia (CdiA) provides a wide range of statistics on many cancers. CdiA also includes some cancer data commentaries. Some of these commentaries are targeted articles focussed on specific cancers while others explain how to use CdiA’s data.
Most of the statistics within CdiA are presented through interactive data visualisations. Data for all visualisations, except cancer rankings, are also available in Excel. Data includes projections for more recent years while the majority of data are actuals. This year’s CdiA includes updated data for existing reports but also a large range of additional cancer statistics.
Contents - new types of data and reports available
Cancer overview, 2023
Accompanying the CdiA this year is a written summary providing an overview of cancer in Australia for 2023.
Blood cancer by histology (experimental incidence and survival data)
By using histological information from the Australian Cancer Database (ACD), a finer level of blood cancer incidence and survival rates are now available. The new data and visualisations, while experimental, provide survival statistics more relevant to specific diagnoses and the incidence rates for these cancers.
This cancer commentary helps understand the blood cancer by histology reporting.
Cancer by subsite (incidence and survival data - excludes blood cancers)
Through using ICD-10 3- and 4-character coding, cancer incidence and survival rates by subsite are provided within this report. For example, melanoma of the skin incidence and survival data are now available by subsites such as melanoma of the eyelid, ear, other parts of the face, of the scalp and neck, of the trunk, of the upper limb including shoulders and of the lower limb including hips.
Selected cancers by histology (experimental incidence and survival data)
Survival and incidence data by histology is available for appendiceal cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer, rectosigmoid junction cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, mesothelioma, melanoma of the skin, kidney cancer and pancreatic cancer. Histology describes the type of cells or tissue in which cancer originates. The survival rates will be more relevant to specific diagnosis, and incidence rates are provided for these cancers. For example, the histology visualisations provide breast cancer incidence and survival rates for many different types of breast cancer such as inflammatory carcinoma, tubular adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine neoplasms.
Incidence projections – 2024 to 2033
Cancer incidence projections from 2024 to 2033 are available in Excel worksheets. The projections are developed through the Nordpred software package. This link provides more information about the projections.
Contents - CdiA core statistics – data updated August 2023
The following statistics form the core CdiA content and are updated annually. The new visualisations and data mentioned above will be added to the CdiA core statistics.
What do the interactive data visualisations contain?
Cancer summary data visualisation – this visualisation contains incidence counts and rates, survival rates and prevalence data. Time series are provided for this data except for prevalence.
Cancer incidence rankings data visualisation – this visualisation lists the leading 20 cancers in Australia for incidence and mortality over time (from 1982 for incidence and from 2007 for mortality)
Cancer incidence by age groups data visualisation – this visualisation contains time series for cancer cases and rates by a wide range of different age groups and also includes the median age at diagnosis.
Cancer mortality by age group data visualisation – this visualisation contains the number of cancer deaths and mortality rates by a wide range of different age groups. Median age at death is only available through Excel.
Cancer survival data visualisation – this visualisation contains observed, relative and conditional survival rates over time. Observed and relative survival for the most recent period by 5-year age group are also provided.
Cancer survival by age data visualisation – this visualisation contains observed and relative survival and by 20-year age groups over time. Age-adjusted survival rates over time are also available on this page.
Cancer by state and territory data visualisation – this visualisation contains state and territory cancer incidence time series data.
Cancer risk data visualisation – this visualisation contains the risk of being diagnosed and the risk of death from cancer time series. Data is presented by age. Risk data is available where it is adjusted for competing mortality and not adjusted for competing mortality.
All interactive data visualisations contain information by sex.
Pivot tables that provide cancer incidence counts by 3 character ICD-10 codes are located in the Data section. Rates by age are available within the raw data but do not appear in the pivot table.
CdiA core statistics part 2, cancer by stage - data updated December 2018
The latest national data are provided on cancer survival, and incidence, by stage of cancer at diagnosis for the 5 most commonly diagnosed cancers (melanoma of the skin, and breast, prostate, lung and colorectal cancers) in 2011. The Cancer incidence and survival by stage data visualisation remains available within this report; information remains unchanged from the previous release of this report because more recent cancer incidence and survival by stage data are not available.
Cancer data available as supplementary tables
Supplementary tables are available containing the data used to inform the above-mentioned statistical reports.