Australia

Cancer care in Australia

According to World Health Organization comparisons, Australian cancer patients generally have better cancer survival rates than those in other countries.¹ In the last 30 years, the death rate for cancer in Australia (number of deaths per 100,000 people) has dropped by more than 24%.² This trend is driven by treatment improvements and new interventions leading to more patients surviving from the most commonly diagnosed cancers, including bowel cancer and prostate cancer in males and breast cancer in females.³

And yet, Australia has one of the highest rates of cancer diagnosis internationally,⁴ with 134,000 new cases estimated to be diagnosed in 2018.2 This number is predicted to rise to 150,000 in 2020,² due to Australia’s increasingly ageing population.⁵ Currently, an estimated 1.1 million (1 in 22) Australians are living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis.⁶ By 2040, it is estimated that 1 in 18 Australians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.⁶

Healthcare in Australia is largely publicly funded, but cancer patients report relatively high out-of-pocket health costs. The financial costs of cancer in Australia are unequally distributed, as some cancer types are more costly to the individual.⁷ Those in rural and remote areas often face greater out-of-pocket costs and can have difficulty accessing healthcare services.⁷

In Australia, cancer has a significant social and economic impact on individuals, families and the broader community. People in lower socioeconomic positions have higher rates of cancer burden, with patients in the lowest socioeconomic group experiencing 1.4 times the cancer burden of those in the highest group.⁷

All.Can Australia

The All.Can initiative began in Australia in late 2017, and was officially launched on World Cancer Day (4 February) 2018.

All.Can Australia, like its international counterparts, has one key mission: to improve cancer care by focusing on what matters to patients. The organisation has spent years working with a network of patients, healthcare professionals, policy makers and researchers to find where Australian patients’ unmet needs lie – and create practical solutions to improve their experience and the efficiency of care. It is led by the belief that efficient cancer care delivers the best possible health outcomes using the human, financial, infrastructural and technological resources available, with a focus on what really matters to patients and society.

All.Can Australia Limited became a newly incorporated entity in 2022 and is led by representatives from cancer organisations, consumer advocates, biopharmaceutical industry, pharmacists and university faculties.

Our achievements

• 2017: Established a dedicated Steering Committee to represent the initiative and officially launched in Australia on World Cancer Day.
• 2018: Established two key research projects to gather data from the macro level health system perspective and micro level clinical setting about common inefficiencies.
• 2019: Launched the results of the global All.Can patient survey to key stakeholders and media.
• 2020: Finalised the Australian research report, “An exploration of the cancer pathway in Australia”. This marked the publishing of Australia’s first research project to help establish a baseline understanding of the cancer pathway in Australia.
• 2021: Finalised and launched the All.Can Australia Cancer Care Navigator Analysis Report, which outlined the potential benefits of establishing Australia’s first universal cancer care navigation model to patients and the Australian health system.
• 2022: Became a standalone legal entity, All.Can Australia Limited, and pursued pilot opportunities for the Cancer Care Navigator model.

References

1. AIHW. Cancer in Australia 2017; ix: 1039-3307. Available here: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cancer/cancer-in-australia-2017/ [accessed: February 2018]
2. Cancer Council Australia. Facts and Figures. Available here: https://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/what-is-cancer/facts-and-figures.html [accessed: February 2018]
3. AIHW. Cancer mortality trends and projections Available here: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cancer/cancer-mortality-trends-and-projections-2014-to-2025 [accessed: February 2018]
4. International Agency for Research on Cancer (World Health Organization). Worldwide Cancer Incidence. Available here: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/sites/default/files/cs_infog_world_inc.pdf [accessed: February 2018]
5. Australian Cancer Research Foundation. Cancer incidence and mortality in Australia. Available here: https://acrf.com.au/on-cancer/cancer-statistics-australia/ [accessed: February 2018]
6. Cancer Council Australia. Australians living with and beyond cancer in 2040. Available here: https://www.cancerwa.asn.au/resources/2018-01-31-cancer-prevalence-in-2040.pdf [accessed: February 2018]
7. AIHW. Burden of cancer in Australia: Australian Burden of Disease Study 2011. Available here: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/burden-of-cancer-in-australia-australian-burden-of-disease-study-2011/contents/table-of-content [accessed: February 2018]