New reports show cancer deaths falling
23 November 2001
Cancer death rates in Australia are continuing to fall, and relative survival rates in the 1990s were much better than in the 1980s, according to 2 new reports released from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) this week.
Cancer in Australia 1998 shows that overall deaths from cancer have been declining at an average of 1.7 per cent per year for men and 1.3 per cent per year for women since 1993.
Cancer Survival in Australia 2001 shows that 57 per cent of men were surviving 5 years after being diagnosed with cancer in the period 1992 to 1997 compared with only 44 per cent surviving 5 years after their diagnosis in the period between 1982 and 1986. For women the corresponding increase in survival was from 55 per cent to 63 per cent.
About 80,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in Australia each year. About one in 3 men and one in 4 women will develop cancer before the age of 75.
Head of the AIHW Health Registers and Cancer Monitoring Unit, John Harding, said that cancer was still the second major cause of death after circulatory diseases, accounting for 29 per cent of deaths in men and 25 per cent in women.
Most common cancers
The most common cancers found in men were:
- prostate cancer (9,869 new cases in 1998);
- bowel cancer (6,131); and
- lung cancer (5,307).
In women the most common cancers were:
- breast cancer (10,665);
- bowel cancer (5,158); and
- melanoma (3,493).
Survival rates
The 5-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer was 83 per cent. The 5-year survival rate for breast cancer was 84 per cent.
Cancers with the highest relative survival rates for men were testicular cancer (95 per cent), thyroid cancer (95 per cent), and melanoma (90 per cent). In women the highest survival rates were for thyroid cancer (95 per cent), melanoma (95 per cent) and Hodgkin’s lymphoma (84 per cent).
Cancers with the lowest 5-year relative survival rates for males and females were pancreatic cancer (5 per cent), lung cancer (11 per cent for men and 14 per cent for women), stomach cancer (23 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively), and brain cancer (24 per cent).
Drop in melanoma cases
Mr Harding said that there was a sharp fall in the number of new cases of melanoma in 1998, contrasting with steady increases during the previous decade.
‘The incidence rates for melanoma in Australia are still among the highest in the world, so there will be great interest among public health professionals in seeing whether the fall in skin cancer cases continues,’ he said.
‘Five-year survival rates after a diagnosis of melanoma, already very high, increased significantly between 1982–86 and 1992–97 — by 7 percentage points for men and almost 4 percentage points for women.’
Other findings of the 2 reports
- Among the limited number of countries for which cancer survival data are available, Australia and the United States of America have the highest 5-year relative survival rates. For people diagnosed during 1992–97, the 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers for females was 63.4 per cent in Australia compared with 62.3 per cent for the USA, and for men 56.8 per cent in Australia compared with 61.2 per cent in the USA.
- New cases of prostate cancer in 1998 continued their fall from a peak in 1994. This coincides with a reduction in the use of prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests. One-third of these cancers occur in men over 75. Death rates remain stable.
- Cigarette smoking is estimated to have directly caused 10,506 new cases of cancer (13 per cent of all new cases) and 7,068 deaths (21 per cent of cancer deaths).
- Age is a strong predictor of survival chances — men and women diagnosed with cancer in their 20s had a better 5-year relative survival rate than any other age group (83 per cent and 87 per cent respectively). Men and women in their 90s had 5-year relative survival rates of 30 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.
Both Cancer in Australia 1998 and Cancer Survival in Australia 2001 are based on data collected by the State and Territory Cancer Registries.
Last Reviewed: 23 November 2001
