Cancer survival and prevalence in Australia: period estimates from 1982 to 2010

Our plain-English summary of Cancer survival and prevalence in Australia: period estimates from 1982 to 2010, by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2013).

The study

• Author: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
• Journal: Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology
• Published: 2013;9(1):29-39
• Cited by: 90 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Aim: The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is a major national agency established by the Australian government to provide reliable, regular and relevant information and statistics on Australia's health and welfare. The AIHW publishes updated information on survival and prevalence of cancer in Australia on a regular basis.

Methods: The latest national survival and prevalence statistics for cancer in Australia from 1982 to 2010 are presented. The period method is used in survival calculations. Limited duration prevalence by sex and 5-year relative survival by age, sex, remoteness from major centers and socioeconomic status are examined in detail for all cancers combined as well as for selected cancers. National conditional survival statistics are also presented.

Results: Five-year survival from all cancers combined increased from 47% in the period 1982-1987 to 66% in 2006-2010. Over the same period, prostate cancer, kidney cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma had the largest increases in 5-year survival, while many of the cancers that already had a low survival in 1982-1987 (such as mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer) showed only small increases. For those who have already survived 5 years past their cancer diagnosis, their survival prospects for the next 5 years were more than 90% for all cancers combined. At the end of 2007 there were 774 700 Australians, or 3.6% of the population, living with a diagnosis of cancer in the previous 26 years. The prevalence was particularly high for breast cancer, melanoma of the skin, prostate cancer and bowel cancer.

© 2013 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

In plain English

This article, from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, reported national cancer survival and prevalence statistics. It drew on the Australian Cancer Database, which records all new cases of primary invasive cancer diagnosed in Australia since 1982, excluding basal and squamous cell skin cancers. These cases were linked to national death records up to the end of 2010. The article did not study asbestos or any other cause of cancer. Mesothelioma appeared as one of many cancer types and was not split by body site. In 2006–2010, five-year relative survival for all cancers combined was 66 percent, up from 47 percent in 1982–1987. For both males and females, the lowest five-year relative survival was for pancreatic cancer (5.2%) and mesothelioma (6.2%). Mesothelioma survival rose only slightly over time, from 5.5% to 6.2%. Five-year survival for mesothelioma, among several other cancers, was higher in the highest socioeconomic quintile than in the lowest. At the end of 2007, 958 living people had been diagnosed with mesothelioma in the previous 26 years. The authors noted that the estimates were not adjusted for age or for lead-time bias.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Population-based national cancer registry analysis of relative survival (calculated by the period method), conditional survival and limited-duration prevalence
• Who was studied: All cases of primary invasive cancer (excluding basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin) recorded in the Australian Cancer Database. Survival analysis used cases diagnosed between 1982 and 2007, with deaths followed to 31 December 2010. Table 2 lists 1 929 154 new cases in 1982–2007, and 42 031 records (2.1%) were excluded from survival analyses.
• Exposure: No asbestos or other exposure was studied. Survival and prevalence were reported by cancer type (including mesothelioma), sex, age, remoteness and socioeconomic status.
• Main results:
  • For all cancers combined, five-year relative survival was 66 percent in 2006–2010.
  • For all cancers combined, five-year survival increased from 47 percent in 1982–1987 to 66 percent in 2006–2010.
  • For both males and females in 2006–2010, the lowest five-year relative survival was for pancreatic cancer (5.2%) and mesothelioma (6.2%).
  • Mesothelioma showed only a small absolute gain in five-year survival, from 5.5% in 1982–1987 to 6.2% in 2006–2010.
  • In 2006–2010, five-year survival for mesothelioma (and for bowel, female breast, cervical, lung, myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, prostate and unknown primary site cancers) was higher in the highest socioeconomic status quintile than in the lowest. No mesothelioma-specific figures were given in the text.
  • At the end of 2007, 958 living people in Australia had been diagnosed with mesothelioma in the previous 26 years.
  • At the end of 2007, about 774 700 people in Australia (roughly 3.6 percent of the population) had been diagnosed with any cancer in the previous 26 years.
  • For all cancers combined, people who had already survived 5 years after diagnosis had a 91.1% five-year conditional relative survival (95% CI 90.9–91.2).
• The authors' conclusion: The authors described the article as summarizing gains in survival from 1982 to 2010 for all cancers combined and for most cancer types.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Basal and squamous cell carcinomas of the skin are not reportable to cancer registries and were not included.
  • The period method involves a trade-off between precision and how recent the estimates are.
  • The results were not adjusted for lead-time bias.
  • Relative survival estimates were not age adjusted, so differences between groups or time periods may be affected by differing age distributions.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Incidence and survival trends for malignant pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, Australia, 1982-2009 — M.J. Soeberg, J. Leigh, et al. (2016)
• Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma: Patterns of Care and Survival in the Netherlands: A Population-Based Study — N.L. de Boer, J.P. van Kooten, et al. (2019)
• The Role of Adjuvant Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Pleural Mesothelioma — G.D. Lewis, S.M. Dalwadi, et al. (2019)
• The future excess fraction of occupational cancer among those exposed to carcinogens at work in Australia in 2012 — R.N. Carey, S.J. Hutchings, et al. (2017)
• Pembrolizumab in paediatric patients with advanced melanoma or a PD-L1-positive, advanced, relapsed, or refractory solid tumour or lymphoma (KEYNOTE-051): interim analysis of an open-label, single-arm, phase 1-2 trial — B. Geoerger, H.J. Kang, et al. (2020)
• Cytoreductive surgery and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) for children, adolescents, and young adults: the first 50 cases — A. Hayes-Jordan, H. Green, et al. (2015)

Browse more research in Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, or return to medical research.