Australia an exception to global bowel cancer trends

Cancer

4 Feb 2016

Bowel cancer rates in Australia and New Zealand seem to be bucking the global trend by declining, international figures show, but the rates still remain some of the highest in the world.

Writing in the journal Gut the authors say the global patterns of disease appear to be linked to economic development and the adoption of a western lifestyle.

Using HDI as a measure of economic development the researchers found countries with a very high rating had on average a six times higher number of cases than countries with a very low HDI.

Overall the estimated rates of new cases in 2012 varied from less than 5 per 100,000 of the population in several African countries to over 40 per 100,000 in certain countries in Europe, Northern America, and Oceania, the observational analysis of global data showed.

A time trends analysis by the authors revealed three distinct groups of countries: those with rising or stable incidence and death rates; those with rising incidence and falling death rates; and those with falling incidence and death rates.

Countries like Australia and New Zealand appeared to buck the global trend by falling into the latter group.

This finding was most likely down to the adoption of best practices in cancer treatment and management and early detection, the researchers said.

However these countries still had some of the highest rates in the world, the study authors noted.

“Improvements in treatment options and accessibility, including tertiary care, are vital in low-income and middle-income countries that face an increasing burden of CRC,” the researchers concluded.

The research team analysed data from the GLOBOCAN database on the numbers of new cases and deaths from the disease in 2012 for 184 countries.

They also looked at time trends in 37 countries, using data from 10 volumes of Cancer Incidence in Five Continents and the World Health Organisation mortality database.

 

 

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