Cancer survival in Australia among the best in the world

While the fall in cancer death rates in the US is making headlines across the world, Australia has quietly been doing just as well and, in some cancers, doing even better because of its universal health care system. Professor Sanchia Aranda, CEO of Cancer Council Australia, says the comparison between the two countries is not exact because the way cancer data is collected in the US leaves gaps in lower socio-economic groups. “But international cancer benchmarking shows cancer survival in Australia is among the best in the world, “she says. “We have world best survival in breast and prostate cancer. In the last benchmarking we were number one for pancreas, oesophageal and lung cancer [for one and five-year survival], we were second in ovarian and pretty good in colorectal cancer as well.” The latest US news emerged from a study published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, which found the cancer death rate in that country fell 2.2 per cent from 2016 to 2017 — the largest single-year decline in cancer mortality ever reported. Since 1991 the rate had dropped 29 per cent and the death rate seemed in steady decline. Experts attributed the decline, in large part, to reduced smoking rates and advances in lung cancer treatment. New therapies for melanoma also helped extend life for many people with cancer that had spread. The big worry in America was the rise in obesity-related cancers in the liver, kidneys, pancreas, uterus, breasts in menopausal women and the colons and rectums of adults under 55. So, what do mortality rates look like in Australia? Professor Aranda says back in 1989, the death rate for men was 287 per 100,000. Now it is 195. For women it similarly dropped from 165 to 130 per 100,000. “Overall, in the last 30 years we have seen a shift from about 50 per cent of people with cancer surviving at least five years, to closer to 70 per cent surviving the same period,” she says. “While that is as good as anywhere in the world, we are concerned we still see disadvantage in lower socio-economic groups, in rural and remote communities and among Australia’s indigenous peoples, with some overlap between these groups.” Liver cancer is a concern too. It has risen 378 per cent since 1982 and is projected to continue rising, in part due to increases in Hepatitis B and C and higher obesity rates. CEO of Cancer Australia, Professor Dorothy Keefe, says Australia is seeing “pretty much the same trends as the US”. “As in America, the advances in treatment in melanoma and lung in the last few years have really made a difference to mortality. “In the last four years in Australia, we have seen a dramatic reduction in deaths from melanoma and have begun to see a further reduction in deaths from lung cancer. She says huge strides have also been made in leukaemia and blood cancers. But then, rare cancers, sarcomas, brain, ovarian and pancreatic cancers have not seen the same big improvements. As in the US, the number of Australians with cancer is rising because the population is both growing and ageing and people are dying less from other diseases – but the mortality rate is dropping. There are over a million people in Australia who are either living with or have lived with cancer. Even though cancer survival rates have increased and cancer mortality rates continue to drop, cancer still accounts for three of every 10 deaths in Australia. It is estimated that just under 50,000 people died from cancer last year and more that half of them were male. source: afr.com