Cancer data in Australia

For many different cancers, this data visualisation provides cancer incidence and mortality data for each state and territory. For this visualisation and for reporting consistency and comparability, mortality data is sourced from the Australian Cancer Database.

State and territory cancer registries report a wide range of cancer statistics. The number of cases reported by AIHW for a given cancer in each jurisdiction may differ from the number published for that cancer in jurisdictions’ own reports. The following are some reasons for this:

1. The data set supplied to AIHW by each cancer registry comes from a snapshot of the registry’s database taken at a specific point in time. If the cancer registry used a different snapshot as the basis of its jurisdictional report, then the number of cases reported by AIHW may differ from the number reported by the jurisdiction.
2. The method used to aggregate data for reporting may differ slightly between different cancer registries. That is, the way the ICD-O-3 topography and morphology codes are mapped to ICD-10 codes might differ slightly. To ensure national consistency, the AIHW applies a single method to all jurisdictions’ data to ensure that the cancer groups are defined in the same way for all jurisdictions.
3. Occasionally, based on the consensus of cancer experts, the World Health Organization redefines the so-called “behaviour” of a neoplasm. This means that a neoplasm that used to be defined as cancer is redefined as non-cancer or vice versa. There are two ways that such a change can be dealt with in cancer reporting, and different cancer registries might make different choices. One way is to report all neoplasms that were defined as cancer at the time the data were collected. The other way is to only report neoplasms that are currently defined as cancer. For example, if a neoplasm was defined as cancer up to and including 2017 but was redefined as non-cancer from 2018 onwards, the first method of reporting would count that neoplasm as cancer up to and including 2017 but not from 2018 onwards whereas the second method would not count that neoplasm as cancer in any year. The AIHW uses the second method whereas some jurisdictions might use the first.

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State and territory cancer incidence and mortality data visualisation

State and territory cancer incidence and mortality data are available as supplementary tables.