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An international study on cancer trends over the last five years concludes 2500 New Zealanders would have survived cancer if they had lived in Australia. The revelations emerged from the third international CONCORD study that looked at 37.5 million patient outcomes in 71 countries. Cancer Society of New Zealand medical director Dr Chris Jackson said while New Zealand has some of the better survival rates for cancer compared to developing nations, we are significantly behind Australia, which shows our health system has a lot of scope for improvement. “Progress against cancer has stalled and we’re calling for a reboot to the cancer programme,” he said. The Cancer Society is calling for the development of a 10-year cancer control strategy, greater planning and coordination within the health system, fixing the bowel cancer screening programme, improving PHARMAC processes, getting back-on-track with Smokefree 2025 and action on reducing obesity.
