More Men Dying Due To Cancer

Newcastle Herald

Friday December 7, 2007

By GABRIEL WINGATE-PEARSE Health Reporter

HUNTER New England men are dying from cancer at a significantly higher rate than the NSW average, and prostate cancer is at least partly to blame, according to the NSW Cancer Institute's latest overview.

The Cancer in New South Wales: Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Report 2005 released yesterday reveals that men in the region are the only geographical group across the state to have a significantly higher death rate for all cancers than the NSW average.

For most types of cancer there were no significant geographical variations across health service regions.

The only other types of cancer for which there were any higher than average mortality rates were liver and lung cancers, which were more likely to result in death in men living in Sydney's south- west; mesothelioma, which killed more men in Sydney's west, and unknown primary cancers affecting more men in rural NSW.

Other statistics show that the men and women living in the Hunter New England region experience higher rates of melanoma, while men have higher rates of unknown primary cancers, and women are more likely than any others in the state to have myeloproliferative disorders (relating to the spinal cord).

Overall, the report showed that in 2005, more than 221,000 people were living with cancer in NSW or were cured of the disease and 34,227 people were diagnosed in 2005.

Cancers of the prostate, bowel, breast, melanoma and lung were the most common and responsible for 61 per cent of all new cases.

In general, men were 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than women.

Lung cancer equalled breast cancer as the most common cause of cancer death in women in 2005, those cancers together were responsible for 32 per cent of cancer deaths in women in NSW.

But prostate cancer was the most common cancer in NSW, with the largest increase in incidence over recent years.

The lifetime risk of prostate cancer for men is now one in five.

DISEASE INCIDENCE

? Most common causes of cancer death in 2005 were: lung (19%), bowel (13%), unknown primary site (8%), prostate (8%) and breast (7%); these accounted for 54% of all deaths.

? Five-year survival in NSW was 63% in 2005 more than 88% for prostate and breast, 90% for melanoma and below 14% for lung cancer.

? The median age at diagnosis was 68 for men and 66 for women.

(Source: Cancer in New South Wales: Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Report 2005)

EEditorial Page 8

Health chief's challenge Page 20

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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