Australia has highest cancer survival rates
12 December 2001
Australia is about the best place in the world to be diagnosed with cancer, according to new figures which show Australia and the US have the highest 5-year relative survival rates, among the limited number of countries for which these data are available.
Two new reports from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show cancer death rates are continuing to fall and relative survival rates in the 1990s were much better than a decade earlier.
Effective detection
They say improving survival rates can be partly attributed to effective detection programs, such as mammography and cervical screening, as well as management and treatment programmes.
Cancer Survival in Australia 2001 shows that from 1992-97, 56.8 per cent of men and 63.4 per cent of women were alive 5 years after diagnosis, up from 44 per cent and 55 per cent respectively in 1982-86. The US figures for 1992-97 were 62.3 per cent for females and 61.2 per cent for males.
New cases
About 80,000 new cancer cases are diagnosed in Australia a year. Most common cancers in men are prostate, bowel and lung and in women, breast, bowel and melanoma.
Survival improvements
Biggest survival improvements from 1982-86 to 1992-97 included breast cancer and Hodgkin's disease (5-year survival now 84 per cent), kidney and colorectal cancer (59 per cent) and cervical cancer (75 per cent.)
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer survival increased significantly in this period (now 83 per cent), influenced by the introduction of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing in the 1990s which led to a sharp rise in the number of new cases detected.But new cases in 1998 continued their fall from a peak in 1994, coinciding with a reduction in the use of PSA tests. Death rates remain stable.
Melanoma
Despite a sharp fall in new melanoma cases in 1998, incidence is still among the world's highest.
Best chance of survival
Cancers with the highest survival rates for men are testicular and thyroid cancer and melanoma, and for women, thyroid, melanoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma and breast cancer. Pancreatic, lung, stomach and brain cancer have the lowest rates.
Last Reviewed: 12 December 2001
- Medical Observer Weekly 7 December 2001
