Page 4964 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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this month to reflect on and express its solidarity with the many individuals and organisations that support pink ribbon month.
It may be useful to remind ourselves that breast cancer is just one cancer of many. The ACT Chief Health Officer is required to maintain a register called the ACT Cancer Register, which contains information on all cases of cancer notified to the Chief Health Officer under the Public Health Act. This information is analysed and reported biennially, with the aim of informing and guiding the planning of cancer services and policy development.
The Chief Health Officer will soon release the latest report, which incorporates data up to the end of 2008. Some of those findings will include that there were 1,433 new cases of cancer diagnosed in ACT residents in 2008. The risk of developing a cancer before the age of 85 is now one in two for males and one in three for females. The most common cancer among males was prostate cancer, followed by colorectal cancer, skin melanoma and lung cancer. The most common cancer in females was breast cancer, followed by colorectal cancer, skin melanoma and lung cancer. Between 1985 and 2008 there were significant increases in the incidence rates of breast cancer and lung cancer in females and prostate cancer and non-Hodgkin’s disease in males.
The rates are such that it would be hard to find a family here that has not been touched, directly or indirectly, by breast cancer. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in Australia. Around 14,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year—about 38 women a day.
Age is one of the known risk factors for developing breast cancer. The older a woman, the greater her chance of developing the disease. Breast cancer can and does strike younger women, with around 700 women under 40 years diagnosed annually. However, about three out of four breast cancers are diagnosed in women aged 50 or more. In 2007, 51 per cent of newly diagnosed women were aged between 50 and 69. The average age of first diagnosis was 60. Because the population generally is ageing and because the overall population is increasing, we can anticipate that the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer each year will continue to increase, at least in the short and medium term.
To put it in perspective, in 1982, just 5,291 women were diagnosed. By 2007, the number was 12,567. By 2015, we can expect around 15,400 women to be diagnosed each year, a 22 per cent increase in the space of a decade. One in nine Australian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85.
Whilst breast cancer is predominantly, even overwhelmingly, a disease of women, men can also develop breast cancer. And while the numbers are small, they are growing too. The number of men diagnosed with breast cancer increased in Australia from 62 in 1982 to 103 in 2007.
Australia operates three main national cancer screening programs—for breast cancer, for cervical cancer and for colorectal cancer. The aim of these screening programs is to detect disease early. We know that, in most cases, the earlier a cancer or a pre-cancerous change is detected, and the earlier treatment begins, the better the health
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