Cancer

Introduction

In 2022, 35,325 persons were diagnosed with any form of cancer or 0.7% of the Queensland population.

Nationally, in 2020, 838,651 people were alive who were diagnosed with cancer between 2011 and 2020.¹ It is estimated that in Queensland 297,598 people are survivors of a cancer that was diagnosed in the last 25 years.²

Cancer burden

In 2024, nationally, compared to all disease groups, cancer and other neoplasms ranked first with a total of 865,891 healthy years of life lost to this disease.³

The majority (91.3%) of this burden was fatal. Nationally, a person’s risk of dying from cancer was estimated to be 1-in-7 by age 85 or 14% in 2022.

Cancer ranked 1st for health expenditure with spending of $18.863 billion or 10.9% of total disease expenditure nationally in 2022–23.⁴ Based on cancers diagnosed from 1997 to 2015, the average annual healthcare expenditure was $3.66 billion in Queensland for 2013–2016.⁵

Selected cancers

Although many cancer diagnosis have no known cause, it is estimated that up to 38% of cancer deaths and 33% of cancer cases in Australia are preventable through changes in modifiable risk factors such as smoking, obesity, sun exposure and alcohol consumption.⁶ National screening programs for breast, cervical and bowel cancers, aim to reduce cancer burden through early detection.⁷ Reducing exposure to substances that cause cancer and increasing participation in screening programs provide opportunities to prevent and reduce cancer burden.

This section presents cancer data for all cancers combined and for seven selected cancers with high burden and healthcare expenditure. In 2024, a total of 485,480 years of healthy life were lost (51.2% of cancer burden and 8.4% of total burden) that was attributable to these seven cancers.

For these selected cancers the number and age-standardised rate for years of healthy life lost nationally in 2024 were:

• lung: 158,445 years (standardised rate 4.6 per 1,000 persons)
• bowel: 97,903 years (standardised rate 2.9 per 1,000 persons)
• breast: 73,309 years (standardised rate 2.3 per 1,000 persons)
• pancreatic: 65,453 years (standardised rate 1.5 per 1,000 persons)
• prostate: 58,218 years (standardised rate 1.5 per 1,000 persons)
• melanoma of the skin: 25,132 years (standardised rate 0.8 per 1,000 persons)
• cervical: 7,020 years (standardised rate 0.2 per 1,000 persons).

Corresponding health expenditure information for 2022–23 are: $1227.8 million (lung), $1.679 billion (bowel), $1.76 billion (breast), $359.2 million (pancreatic), $2.136 billion (prostate), $424.6 million (melanoma of the skin), $100.9 million (cervical).

A 2018 study in the United Kingdom estimated the total cost to society per case for selected chronic conditions. Cancer was the 3rd most costly, behind dementia and stroke, at £13,031 per case.⁸ Cancer, however, had the highest proportion of productivity losses at 44.1% of costs, followed by health care (42.9%) and social care (8.2%). Although these numbers may not directly translate to Australian settings, they provide insights into how different areas of society are economically impacted by cancer.