NZ behind in cancer treatments

By REBECCA WALSH and NZPA

New Zealand women with breast cancer are almost 30 per cent more likely to die from the disease than their Australian counterparts, a Dunedin study has found.

Doctors think the difference is due to Australia being ahead of New Zealand in its management and treatment of cancer.

The Otago University study by Professor David Skegg said New Zealanders were more likely to die from cancer than Australians.

It also predicted the gap between the two countries in controlling cancer would widen in the next few years.

The report has reignited calls for a broader approach to tackling the disease by the New Zealand Cancer Control Trust.

The researchers compared figures on new cancer cases and deaths in 1996 and 1997, the most recent annual statistics available.

In all age groups there were more deaths in New Zealand.

Each year about 7000 New Zealanders die from cancer and if the Australian death rate was applied here there would have been 215 fewer cancer deaths in New Zealand males and 616 fewer in females.

The biggest differences were found in breast and lung cancer in women, and bowel and rectal cancer in both sexes.

The study said not only was the incidence of cancer higher in New Zealand but death rates for many types of cancer were also worse, possibly because of delays in presentation and/or less optimal treatment.

Although the incidence of breast cancer was very similar to Australia, New Zealand had a 28 per cent higher mortality from the disease.

Professor Skegg said it was possible New Zealand had lagged behind Australia in implementing advances in the management of breast cancer.

In Australia many women were treated in multi-discipline settings, particularly in metropolitan areas.

In contrast, women in New Zealand were treated by a large number of specialists, but there had been no systematic surveys of how their treatment was managed.

Professor Skegg said the increasing emphasis on privacy in New Zealand had made researching the disease "very difficult".

Health Ministry spokesman Colin Feek said it was not necessarily correct to compare Australia and New Zealand as being similar countries for research purposes.

"New Zealand is a Pacific Island country. Nearly one-quarter of our population is either Maori or Pacific Islander and that makes a fundamental difference."

Dr Feek said there was a marked difference in the cancer survival rates between white New Zealanders and Maori and Pacific Islanders.

Maori and Pacific Islanders had much poorer survival rates because they were presenting themselves with cancers that had already begun to spread.