FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The cancer agency of the World Health Organization revealed today that Australian men have the highest incidence rate of cancer in the world. The latest data provides the most recent estimates of cancer incidence, mortality, and prevalence for 28 types of cancer in 184 countries worldwide. The data reveals striking patterns of cancer in women and highlights that preventing and controlling breast and cervical cancers globally should be prioritised.
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Professor Ian Olver is CEO of Cancer Council Australia
“The Globocan 2012 figures show a rise in the incidence of cancer worldwide. In Australia, we are seeing more people being diagnosed with cancer, this is largely due to our aging population. More people are living to an age where cancer becomes more common. In addition, it probably reflects more men having PSA tests for prostate cancer.
The good news for Australia is that our death rate from cancer is decreasing. This is largely due to better treatments and population screening programs for breast, cervical and bowel cancer. It is a tragedy that the high rate of cervical cancer in developing nations could be addressed by the introduction of screening programs, alongside a HPV vaccination program, like the one that has proven so successful in Australia.”
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Professor Bernard Stewart is Professor, School of Women’s and Children’s Health at UNSW and Head of the Cancer Control Program, South East Sydney Public Health Unit
“GLOBOCAN 2012 – What’s in it for Australia?
The worldwide cancer incidence and consequential deaths presented in GLOBOCAN 2012, broken down in respect of both geography and tumour type, represents the most definitive and accessible information about the global burden of this disease. The gravest message concerns the increasing cancer burden in middle- and low-income countries that find themselves almost overwhelmed by (1) cancer attributable to various infections, (2) cancer attributable to western lifestyle practices which are increasingly adopted and (3) poor public health and medical resources to achieve early detection and hence better survival. Only one of these considerations – certain lifestyle practices – can be identified as crucial to Australia.
Australia, because of an aging population and to a lesser extent, population-based testing for early detection of some tumour types, has one of the highest incidence of cancer worldwide, but a much better comparative outlook in relation to survival of cancer patients after diagnosis. For Australia, GLOBOCAN 2012 presses home the messages that local public health authorities have given: some cancer cases are inexplicable, but at least one third could be prevented by smoking cessation, reduced alcohol intake, avoiding overweight/obesity and doing the right thing about sun exposure.”
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Terry Slevin is Director, Education and Research at The Cancer Council WA
“Australia and New Zealand have very efficient and accurate cancer registries. This is not universally the case around the world so the very thorough data capture in part explains this outcome
Secondly, more active programs to find cancer at an early stage means the incidence rates in Australia will be higher than countries where there are fewer population screening programs that have strong participation levels. When you go actively looking for cancer and do it well you tend to find more cancer.
Thirdly, it is perverse but true that people in “healthy” countries are more likely to live long enough to receive a cancer diagnosis. So high cancer incidence rates are largely a sign of other health services and programs including public health infrastructure like clean water, safe food, reliable sanitation and sound safety practices, being successful.
Another prominent feature of the report is the pronounced differential between men and woman when it comes to cancer incidence in Australia. This differential is not as pronounced in other parts of the world and deserves closer attention. We need to do more about blokes and cancer.”
For an interview with Terry, please contact Cancer Council Australia’s Media Manager on (02) 8063 4153.
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Professor Chris Del Mar is Professor of Public Health at Bond University
“One of the reasons that Australian men have such a high incidence of cancer is that people are living longer as we all become more affluent (our lifespan increase an extra 3 months every year on average). This means that we have a greater incidence of ‘diseases of affluence’ – including cancer.
But it’s also worth noting that some of the apparent increase is not real. It appears to be the case because people are not dying from some other groups of diseases (heart disease and infections, which are easier to prevent and treat), which means that, because we all have to die of something, more people end up dying of cancer.”
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Dr Michelle Hill is Head of the Cancer Proteomics Group at the The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute
“The increase in cancer incidence in Australia may be associated with the obesity epidemic, particularly the ‘stomach bulge’ common in Australian men. We need to keep pushing lifestyle changes, including education for children and their parents on the broad effects obesity may affect their health.”
* http://globocan.iarc.fr/