Lung and bowel cancers more likely to be detected in later stages

An alarming new report by Cancer Australia has found two of the most common cancers in Australia aren’t being detected early enough.

In a first for Cancer Australia, data relating to the timeliness of cancer diagnosis has been released. Worryingly, bowel and lung cancer, among the most common cancers in Australia, aren’t being picked up until the later,  and more deadly, stages.

Data found only 18 per cent of lung cancer patients and 46 per cent of bowel cancer patients are diagnosed in the early stages. Comparatively , 77 per cent of breast cancer cases in women are detected in early stages. Even higher, 92 per cent of melanomas are diagnosed early, while 82 per cent of men catch prostate cancer in time for effective treatment to take place.

Sadly, one Australian is diagnosed with cancer every four minutes, meaning there will be around 138,000 recorded cases in 2018 alone. Cancer is categorised into four stages of increasing severity. Stage one cancer usually refers to cancer that is small and has only spread to nearby tissues. In this stage, is hasn’t spread to other parts of the body or nodes and survival rate is typically high.

Stage two and three means the cancer is larger and has spread to further tissue. It can also impact the lymph nodes at this stage. Stage four is when cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Health professionals often refer to this stage as an advanced stage of cancer and it is often deadly.

In lung cancer, 12 per cent of those diagnosed were stage one, 7 per cent were stage two, 11 per cent were stage three and 42 per cent were stage four. A further 29 per cent weren’t able to be staged.

Read more: Government cuts hundreds off cost of life-saving cancer medicine

The odds for bowel cancer were slightly better, with 22 per cent diagnosed in stage one, 24 per cent in stage two and three, and 18 per cent in stage four. A total of 12 per cent of cases couldn’t be staged.

Cancer Australia CEO Dr Helen Zorbas said the release of this important data would help health professionals tackle cancer better.

“Over past decades, cancer control in Australia has been informed by high quality cancer data, due in part to mandatory reporting of cancer incidence,” she said in a statement. “However, what has been missing from the picture is the availability of national data on the stage at diagnosis.”

Dr Zorbas added it was important as it helped linked the stage of diagnosis to survival rate.

“The data will help us explore the relationship between cancer stage at diagnosis and survival outcomes, and the role of public health initiatives, early detection and awareness campaigns,” she said. “This marks a major leap forward. Ultimately, the collection of stage data will enable us to understand the association between stage at diagnosis, treatments and outcomes, and to better understand differences in these aspects for different sociodemographic groups.”

In Australia, breast cancer was the biggest diagnosed cancer last year, followed by bowel, prostate, melanoma and lung cancers. In terms of death, lung cancer was the leading cancer killer, followed by bowel, prostate and breast cancers. The latest data shows there is a clear link between getting diagnosed early and beating cancer.

What do you think? Have you had cancer? Do you do the advised regular tests for different types of cancer?