The Australian Institute of Health & Welfare has found that fewer Australians are dying of cancer, but the number of people diagnosed with the disease is climbing every year.
The cancer rate has increased 27% over the past quarter of a century.
Christine Sturrock, lead researcher with the Institute, says it is difficult to pinpoint what causes cancer.“We do know different things are risk factors for different cancers,” she said. “So when you tease the cancers apart and you pick particular cancers you can see that there are particular risk factors that can vary across different groups in the population.”
Australia tops the list with the number of skin cancers, with the rate of melanoma more than 13 times higher than the global average.
For me, the standout finding is that the increasing rate is slowing and the decrease in cancer deaths is much more dramatic.
We also have the highest rate of prostate cancer and the third highest rate of breast cancer. “For me, the standout finding is that the increasing rate is slowing and the decrease in cancer deaths is much more dramatic,” Ms Sturrock said.
The bottom line for readers – have regular testing.
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