Investment in cancer research and advancements in medical technology have led to a decline in cancer death rates in Queensland, offering hope and optimism of those affected by the disease.
Data from the Queensland Cancer Register (QCR) has revealed that the significant decline over the last five years can be attributed to various factors including progress in cancer treatments, specifically in immunotherapy, the efforts of committed healthcare providers, investments in prevention initiatives, and enhanced diagnostics using genomic sequencing.
The Cancer Alliance Queensland (CAQ), which manages the QCR, has developed an interactive dashboard to allow public access to key incidence, mortality, and survival data for Queensland.
The Cancer Data Explorer shows there was a 27 per cent decrease in the cancer death rate, resulting in nearly 37,000 fewer deaths than anticipated in the period from 1994 to 2020.
It also shows that, although medical research and treatment have made significant progress, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in Queensland, after heart disease.
Lung cancer continues to be the most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths, followed by colorectal cancer.
Queensland Cancer Control Safety and Quality Partnership (The Partnership)Chair, Professor Euan Walpole, said while lung cancer remains the leading cause of death, more than a quarter of people diagnosed with lung cancer are still alive five years after their diagnosis.
“This is an improvement from only 14 per cent of people with lung cancer surviving in the early 2000s,” Professor Walpole said.
In the past five years, significant advancements have been made in cancer treatments, particularly in the field of immunotherapy.
“In Queensland since 2013, mortality due to melanoma of the skin has decreased by 41 per cent overall. These improvements are thanks to the introduction of immunotherapy trials,” he said.
“Breast cancer continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, but thanks to improved screening methods and treatment advances, mortality rates have decreased.”
The first brain cancer report in more than a decade published by Cancer Alliance Queensland also showcases improved mortality rates for Queenslanders.
Neurosurgeon at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and member of the Cancer Alliance Queensland Quality Partnership, Associate Professor Lindy Jeffree, said the recently published Queensland Brain Cancer Clinical Quality Index shows that patients are receiving excellent care.
“For example, the early post-operative mortality is low and has fallen since 2011-2015 time period; nearly everyone gets a histological diagnosis for their brain cancer (86 per cent), and nearly everyone receives radiotherapy in an appropriate time frame (93 per cent),” Associate Professor Jeffree said.
“One of the drivers of this improvement in care is the QOOL software developed by Cancer Alliance Queensland, which enables us to do research into patterns of care for cancer patients which is essential to understand what is happening to patients and working out ways to improve that.”
She said while the best treatments currently see most patients with brain cancer eventually succumb to the disease, it was still important to invest in research and treatments.
“This makes the money provided by the Queensland Government for cancer research essential, to try and find new treatments that will save lives,” she said.
“Queensland Health support for research as part of clinical practice enables me to collaborate with translational researchers working to discover a cure.”
With advancements in preventing and treating cancer, the Queensland Government continues to provide opportunities to enhance health behaviours among Queenslanders to sustain the decreasing trend in cancer-related mortality rates.
New initiatives to target skin cancer rates include the addition of five Skin Cancer Early Detection (SCED) clinics operated by North West, South West, Central Queensland, Mackay and Townsville hospital and health services.
The clinics, which are free or low-cost for patients, and are staffed by visiting qualified GPs until June 2024 and follow the successful delivery of SCED clinics in Moura, Clermont, Karumba and Cloncurry.
Across the four clinics, 76 people were seen earlier in 2023, with 30 of them having cancers that were detected and treated.
As well, the government’s Sunshine: You do the 5. You survive initiative, reinforces the importance of adopting sun safe behaviours.