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More New Zealanders are surviving cancer than ever before but the health system is struggling with an increased number of cases, according to the latest State of Cancer report released last December by Te Aho o Te Kahu | Cancer Control Agency.
The report reviews available data on New Zealand’s system of cancer prevention and care and is an update on the 2021 report.
Cancer remains the leading cause of death in New Zealand, followed by heart disease and stroke. According to the report, annual cancer diagnoses are projected to rise from more than 30,000 in 2025 to over 45,000 by 2044, driven by a growing and increasingly aged population
However, the good news is that improvements in screening, early detection and greater access to treatment have improved the five-year net survival rate for all cancers by 15 per cent. For some cancers, such as bowel cancer, which has an early screening programme, mortality rates have dropped by 35 percent over the past 20 years, the report says.
Another factor that has greatly reduced cancer rates has been the decrease in smoking, although other modifiable risk factors such as excess body weight, alcohol use, and physical inactivity have shown little improvement.
According to the report, early detection is a critical factor in prevention and this is particularly so for melanoma, one of the most common cancers in New Zealand.
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of melanoma in the world, largely due to our high UV exposure, with more than 7000 people diagnosed yearly, around 300 dying from the disease.
New Zealand has one of the highest UV indexes in the world, along with Australia, Chile and South Africa. On the UV index scale from 1-11+, New Zealand can reach a peak of 12-13 throughout summer.
Sunsmart.org says the easiest way to be safe in the sun is to follow the “Slip, Slop, Slap and Wrap” protocol, even on cloudy, or overcast days outside.
Health experts also encourage people to take part in national skin cancer screening programmes and to seek medical advice early if they notice any unusual symptoms such as a mole that changes colour, shape or size, any pain or itchiness experienced in a mole or lesion, or any other symptoms listed in the melonoma.org.nz website.
Recently, the Winn Trust awarded $1 million to support melanoma research led by Associate Professor of Pharmacology Stephen Jamieson and Dr Dean Singleton at the University’s Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre and Centre for Cancer Research.
“Immunotherapy can be used to treat melanomas, but if that fails, there are no effective treatment options for NRAS-mutant melanomas and there’s a very poor prognosis – so there’s an urgent need for new treatments,” Jamieson says.
Singleton hopes discovering how some melanoma cells resist existing treatments and finding their vulnerabilities might pave the way to developing new treatments with higher success rates.
Te Aho o Te Kahu says sustained investment in prevention, research, and equitable access to care will be essential if New Zealand is to reverse current trends and reduce the impact of cancer.
