Lung cancer - incidence and mortality

Commentary

• Lung cancer is the fourth most common cancer in both males and females in the ACT. It is the most common cause of death from cancer in both males and females.
• In 2019 there were 133 new cases diagnosed in ACT residents (45.9% in males and 54.1% in females). The age-standardised incidence rate in 2019 was 30.9 cases per 100,000 people (31.1 for males and 30.5 for females) compared to 42.8 per 100,000 people for Australia in 2019 (50.2 for males and 36.7 for females).*^1,2
• The decline in lung cancer incidence rates over time clearly illustrates the effect of reducing a modifiable risk. Lung cancer incidence in males has significantly decreased. However, the picture for females is quite different, with a small increase that is approaching statistical significance. The difference reflects historical differences in smoking behaviour. While not all lung cancers are caused by smoking, it is the most important risk behaviour.
• In 2018, 93 people (47.3% males and 52.7% females) who lived in the ACT at the time of their lung cancer diagnosis died from lung cancer. In 2018 the age-standardised mortality rate for the ACT was 23.0 deaths per 100,000 people (23.4 for males and 22.5 for females) compared to 28.5 deaths per 100,000 people for Australia in 2017 (35.5 for males and 22.6 for females).^1,2
• Five-year relative survival for lung cancer has improved over time, from 14.5% in the period 1988–1997 to 20.9% for the period 2008–2017. Females had better survival (24.5%) than males (17.2%). People under the age of 65 had better survival than those aged 65 and over (26.9% and 17.6%, respectively). Despite the improvement over time, lung cancer remains a major cause of cancer mortality.^1-7 Treatment remains difficult, though recently outcomes of treatments for lung cancer have shown significant progress^.8

*The national 2019 cancer incidence data reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare are estimates based on previous years’ trends. By contrast, all ACT-specific incidence data reported here utilise actual ACT data.

References

1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Cancer in Australia 2021. Canberra: AIHW; 2021 [cited 2022 Apr 6].

2. ACT Cancer Registry. Canberra: ACT Cancer Registry; 2022 (unpublished data).

3. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Life Tables, States, Territories and Australia, 2015-2017. Canberra: ABS; 2019 [cited 2022 Apr 6].

4. ABS. Life Tables, States, Territories and Australia, 2014-2016. Canberra: ABS; 2018 [cited 2022 Apr 6].

5. ABS. Life Tables, States, Territories and Australia, 2013-2015. Canberra: ABS; 2017 [cited 2022 Apr 6].

6. ABS. Life Tables, States, Territories and Australia, 2012-2014. Canberra: ABS; 2016 [cited 2022 Apr 6].

7. ABS. Life Tables, States, Territories and Australia, 2011-2013. Canberra: ABS; 2015 [cited 2022 Apr 6].

8. Schenk EL, Patil T, Pacheco J, Bunn PA Jr. 2020 Innovation-Based Optimism for Lung Cancer Outcomes. Oncologist 2021; 26(3): e454-e472.

The authors wish to thank the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the Coroners and the National Coronial Information System for enabling the cause of death unit record file data to be used for this publication.

Chart

Data

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Codes and sources

Source: ACT Cancer Registry