Notes on the data: Premature mortality by selected cause - 0 to 74 years

Deaths from cancer, persons aged 0 to 74 years, 2018 to 2022

Policy context: Cancer is a general term used to describe the group of diseases where cells grow in an uncontrolled and purposeless way inside the body [1]. Some cancers can be cured, others can be controlled by medical treatment and some are diagnosed too late for medical treatment to be effective. Although the causes of many cancers are not fully understood, some of the factors that place people at greater risk of developing cancer are well recognised. They include: biomedical factors (e.g., genetic susceptibility, hormonal factors), behavioural factors (e.g., smoking - cause of around 20-30% of all cancers, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and obesity, chronic infections, diet) and environmental factors (e.g., sunlight, radiation, occupational exposures, pollution) [2]. Some risk factors cannot be changed while others, especially those related to behaviours, are modifiable. The risk of many cancers increases as people age.

Cancer is a leading cause of death, with lung cancer (malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung) and bowel cancer (malignant neoplasm of colon, sigmoid, rectum and anus) and blood cancers (malignant neoplasm of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue) ranked fifth, eighth and ninth, respectively in the leading causes of death in Australia [3]. Cancer is also the leading cause of premature mortality, or deaths before 75 years of age as presented in the Social Health Atlas.

From 1968 to 2018, although the number of deaths from all cancers combined increased, age-standardised (all age) mortality rates decreased, from 213.1 per 100,000 population in 1994 to 156.0 per 100,000 in 2018 [2]. From 2000 to 2024, age-adjusted cancer mortality rates decreased from 255 deaths per 100,000 people to an estimated 194 deaths per 100,000 people [4].

Socioeconomic disparities are evident in premature deaths from cancer, both for all cancers (with rates of cancer-related mortality 57% higher in areas of lower socioeconomic status (SES) than those in higher SES areas over the period 2018 to 2022), 56% higher for colorectal cancer and almost two and a half (2.46) times higher for lung cancer [5].

For 2018 to 2022, 45.8% of deaths from cancer were premature, with closely similar proportions for males and females – these and other details are available here.

References

Cancer Council Australia (CCA). About cancer: FAQ [Internet]. Available from: http://www.cancer.org.au/aboutcancer/FAQ.htm#491; last accessed 18 October 2013.
Cancer mortality, National Cancer Control Indicators. Available from: https://ncci.canceraustralia.gov.au/outcomes/cancer-mortality/cancer-mortality; last accessed 9 September 2024.
Causes of Death, Australia. Top 5 leading causes of death for selected years, 1968-2022. Available from: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/causes-death-australia/latest-release; last accessed 9 September 2024.
Cancer data in Australia, Over view of cancer in Australia, 2024. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cancer/cancer-data-in-australia/contents/overview; last accessed 9 September 2024.

Notes: International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes: C00-D48

For detailed data files released since 2007, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has applied a staged approach to the coding of cause of death which affects the number of records available for release at any date. In general, the latest year’s data are designated preliminary, the second latest as revised and the data for the remaining years as final. For further information about the ABS revisions process see the following and related sites: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3303.0Explanatory+Notes12012.

Data published here are from the following releases: 2018, 2019, 2020 final; and 2021 and 2022, preliminary.

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Deaths from cancer at ages 0 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate per 100,000 population (aged 0 to 74 years); and/or indirectly age-standardised ratio, based on the Australian standard.

Source: Data compiled by PHIDU from deaths data based on the 2018 to 2022 Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System. The population is the average of the ABS Estimated Resident Population (ERP) for Australia, 30 June 2018 to 30 June 2022.