Cancer incidence

Published

13 Sep, 2019

All of Australia’s states and territories have legislation mandating the notification of cancer diagnoses and national cancer incidence data are available from these sources for the years 1982 to 2015.¹ Projected estimates of annual cancer diagnoses are also available for the years 2016 to 2019.^2,3

Summary

Cancer incidence in Australia is increasing overallFrom 1982 to 2015, cancer incidence in Australia increased from 47,462 cases to 131,452 cases. 

Indigenous persons experienced higher incidence rates for some cancersIn 2009–2013, age-standardised incidence rates for all cancers combined (excluding non-melanoma cancers of the skin) were higher in Indigenous than non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous persons experienced higher age-standardised incidence rates than non-Indigenous persons for cancers of the cervix, head and neck, liver, lung, oesophagus, ovary, pancreas, unknown primary site, and uterus.

Cancer incidence rates for specific cancers were higher in remote areasIn 2010–2014, age-standardised incidence rates were higher in Remote and Very Remote areas combined, compared to Major Cities for cervical (49% higher), head and neck (67% higher), liver (16% higher), lung (27% higher), oesophagus (31% higher), rectal (5% higher),  unknown primary site (49% higher) and uterine (9% higher) cancers.

Cancer incidence rates for specific cancers were higher in the lowest socioeconomic status (SES) areasIn 2010–2014, age-standardised incidence rates were higher in the lowest SES compared to the highest SES areas for all cancers combined (5%), bladder (17% higher), cervical (52% higher), colon (14% higher), colorectal (19% higher), head and neck (57% higher), liver(58% higher), lung (72% higher), oesophagus (43% higher), pancreatic (18% higher), rectal (28% higher), unknown primary site (49% higher) and uterus (18% higher) cancers.

Data

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Cancer type

Notes

• Data sourced from AIHW ACIM books (for 1982 to 2015) and Cancer in Australia 2019 - Supplementary data tables (for 2016 to 2019 estimates).

Column one shows the year and subsequent columns show no. of diagnoses for each cancer type for males, females and persons.
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Notes

Data sourced from: AIHW 2018. Australian Cancer Incidence and Mortality (ACIM) books.

Age-standardised cancer incidence by sex, 1982 to 2015
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Notes

Data sourced from: AIHW 2018. Australian Cancer Incidence and Mortality (ACIM) books.

Age-specific cancer incidence, by sex, 2015
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Persons / Males / Females

Notes

Data sourced from: AIHW 2018. Australian Cancer Incidence and Mortality (ACIM) books.

Incidence by age group, 1982 to 2014
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Notes

• Please note: information regarding data prior to 2009–2013 is provided under the ‘Trends’ tab.
• Data sourced from AIHW Australian Cancer Database 2014.
• Data shown for 'Indigenous' and 'Non-Indigenous' are for NSW, Vic, Qld, WA and the NT only.

Age-standardised incidence by Indigenous status, 2009–2013
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Notes

• Data sourced from AIHW Australian Cancer Database 2014.
• Remoteness areas are classified according to the Australian Standard Geography Standard (ASGS) 2011.
• Rates are age-standardised to the 2001 Australian population.

Age-standardised incidence by remoteness area and sex, 2010–2014
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• Data sourced from AIHW Australian Cancer Database 2014.
• SES area is classified according to the 2011 SEIFA quintile classifications, see 'About the data' for more detail.
• Rates are age-standardised to the 2001 Australian population.

Age-standardised incidence by socioeconomic status, 2010–2014
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Notes

• Data sourced from International Agency for Research on Cancer GLOBOCAN 2018 database.
• Rates are age-standardised to the WHO world standard population.

Age-standardised incidence comparison - selected countries

About this measure

Cancer incidence data refer to the number of new cases of cancer diagnosed each year. They can be presented as absolute numbers of cases or as rates. Rates are often age-standardised to remove the influence of age for comparing different populations, as the likelihood of being diagnosed with most types of cancer increases with age.¹ Age-specific rates are used to compare cancer incidence between different age groups.

Age-standardised and age-specific data are made available each year by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) for individual cancer types and cancer groupings. These tumour types and groupings are classified by ICD-10 code.¹

International cancer incidence data are available through the GLOBOCAN project; these data are age-standardised to the average age structure of the world population in 2018.⁴ International comparisons are made for this NCCI indicator for 15 selected developed countries (including Australia) across five continents. The selected countries are Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, USA and Uruguay.

About the data

Cancer incidence indicates the number of new cancers diagnosed during a specified time period (usually one year). The major source of cancer incidence data is the Australian Cancer Database (ACD) which contains records of all primary, malignant cancers (except basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas of the skin) diagnosed in Australia since 1982.

All Australian states and territories have legislation that makes cancer a notifiable disease. Various designated bodies, i.e., institutions such as hospitals, pathology laboratories and registries of births, deaths and marriages, are required to report cancer cases and deaths to their jurisdictional cancer registries.

Each registry supplies incidence data annually to the AIHW under an agreement between the registries and the AIHW. These data are compiled into the ACD, the only repository of national cancer incidence data. The 2015 national incidence counts include estimates for NSW in place of actual data, which were not available at the time of publication.

Methodology

Remoteness

For 2010–2014 data the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2011 was used to allocate participants to a remoteness area based on their area of usual residence, and for 2005–2009 data the now superseded Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) 2006 was used.

Socioeconomic status

The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSD) was used to allocate participants to a SES quintile based on their area of usual residence.

For 2010–2014 data the 2011 IRSD was used, and for 2005–2009 data the 2006 IRSD was used.

Age standardisation

Australian incidence data are age-standardised to the Australian population as at 30 June 2001 and are expressed per 100,000 population.

International incidence data are age-standardised to the World standard population, which generally give appreciably lower rates than standardisation to the Australian population due to differences in age weightings.

Data sources

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Cancer Incidence and Mortality (ACIM) books
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) GLOBOCAN 2018 database for international data, which contains cancer incidence from cancer registries around the world.

For the international data, the incidence data are estimates for 2018 (using data from approximately 3–5 years earlier) based on data provided to IARC by national statistical agencies and registries.¹⁰ (http://globocan.iarc.fr/Pages/DataSource_and_methods.aspx).

Data caveat

Reliable national data on the diagnosis of cancer for Indigenous Australians are not available nationally. All state and territory cancer registries collect information on Indigenous status; however, in some jurisdictions the coverage of Indigenous status data is regarded as insufficient for inclusion in national incidence analyses. Information in the ACD on Indigenous status is considered to be of sufficient completeness for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Data for these five jurisdictions therefore were used to examine the incidence of cancer by Indigenous status.

References

Activity in this area

Data

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Cancer Incidence and Mortality (ACIM) books. [Accessed July 2019]; https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cancer/cancer-data-in-australia/acim-books.

Social Health Atlases of Australia: Population Health areas – Cancer Incidence data. [Accessed July 2019]; http://phidu.torrens.edu.au/social-health-atlases/indicators-and-notes-on-the-data/social-health-atlases-of-australia-contents

References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018. ACIM (Australian Cancer Incidence and Mortality) books. Canberra: AIHW. [Accessed July 2019]; https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cancer/cancer-data-in-australia/acim-books
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019. Cancer in Australia 2019. Cancer series no.119. Cat. no. CAN 122. Canberra: AIHW.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018. Cancer data in Australia. Canberra: AIHW. Web report. [Accessed June 2019]; https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cancer/cancer-data-in-australia/contents/summary
Ferlay J, Ervik M, Lam F, Colombet M, Mery L, Piñeros M, Znaor A, Soerjomataram I, Bray F (2018). Global Cancer Observatory: Cancer Today. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer. [Accessed June 2019]; https://gco.iarc.fr/today.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018. Cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia. Web report. Canberra: AIHW. [Accessed June 2019]; https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cancer/cancer-in-indigenous-australians/contents/table-of-contents
AIHW Australian Cancer Database 2015.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019. Cervical screening in Australia 2019. Cancer series no. 123. Cat. no. CAN 124. Canberra: AIHW
AIHW Australian Cancer Database 2011.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare & Cancer Australia 2011. Lung cancer in Australia: an overview. Cancer series no. 64. Cat. no. CAN 58. Canberra: AIHW.
Stewart BW, Wild CP editors. World cancer report. Lyon: International Agency for Research on Cancer, WHO; 2014.

Revision Type

Minor

Version Number

National Cancer Control Indicators

Cancer incidence

Summary