This report is the latest release in the Cancer: New registrations and deaths series, which presents information about new cases of primary cancer diagnosed and reported to the New Zealand Cancer Registry. It also presents information on deaths registered in New Zealand in the same time period where cancer was recorded as the underlying cause of death. The focus of this report is on new cancer cases and deaths in 2012.
This report is accompanied by a set of interactive tables "Cancer trends 2012" that provide supplementary registration and mortality data, including key facts for selected cancers and underlying data used to create graphs and maps in the report
Key Results
Cancer registrations
- There were 21,814 new cases of cancer registered in New Zealand.
- More than half of cancers registered were for males (11,345 cases, 52%).
- The age-standardised registration rate was 337.5 cases per 100,000 population.
Most common cancers
- The most commonly registered cancers were prostate (3129 cases), breast (3054), colorectal (3016), melanoma (2324) and lung (2027).
- For males the most commonly registered cancers were prostate (3129 cases), colorectal (1570), melanoma (1228), lung (1059) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (432).
- For females the most commonly registered cancers were breast (3025 cases), colorectal (1446), melanoma (1096), lung (968) and uterine (513).
Age
- People aged 65 years and older accounted for nearly 6 out of 10 new cancer cases.
- In people aged 0–24 years, the most common cancer registered was leukaemia for both males and females.
- In people aged 25–44 years, the most common cancer registered was testicular cancer for males and breast cancer for females.
- In people aged 45–64 and 65–74 years, the most common cancer registered was prostate cancer for males and breast cancer for females.
- In people aged 75 years and older, the most common cancer registered was prostate cancer for males and colorectal cancer for females.
Ethnic group
- 2105 Māori and 19,709 non-Māori were registered with cancer.
- Māori had a registration rate of 414.7 per 100,000 Māori population, which was 26.2% higher than the rate for non-Māori (328.5 per 100,000 non-Māori population).
District Health Board (2010–2012)
- The highest registration rate for 2010–2012 was in Whanganui DHB (361.5 per 100,000), followed by Lakes DHB (361.2 per 100,000). The lowest registration rate was in Nelson Marlborough DHB (321.8 per 100,000), followed by Capital & Coast DHB (323.8 per 100,000).
Cancer deaths
- There were 8905 deaths due to cancer in New Zealand.
- More than half of cancer deaths were male (4735 cases, 53.2%).
- The age-standardised mortality rate was 124.0 deaths per 100,000 population.
Most common cancer deaths
- The most common cancer deaths were from lung (1628 deaths), colorectal (1283), breast (618), prostate (607) and pancreatic cancer (463).
- For males the most common cancer deaths were from lung (891 deaths), colorectal (664), prostate (607) and pancreatic (229) cancer, and melanoma (222).
- For females the most common cancer deaths were from lung (737 deaths), colorectal (619), breast (617), pancreatic (234) and ovarian (175) cancer.
Age
- People aged 65 years and older accounted for at least 7 out of 10 cancer deaths.
- In people aged 0–24 years, the most common cause of cancer death was brain cancer for males and leukaemia for females.
- In people aged 25–44 years, the most common cause of cancer death was brain cancer for males and breast cancer for females.
- In people aged 45–64 years the most common cause of cancer death was lung cancer for males and breast cancer for females.
- In people aged 65–74 years the most common cause of cancer death was lung cancer for both males and females.
- In people aged 75 years and older, the most common cause of cancer death was prostate cancer for males and colorectal cancer for females.
Ethnic group
- A total of 936 Māori and 7969 non-Māori died from cancer.
- Māori had a cancer mortality rate of 199.4 per 100,000 Māori population, which was 1.7 times the rate for non-Māori (116.5 per 100,000 non-Māori population).
District Health Board (2010–2012)
- The highest cancer mortality rate for 2010–2012 was in Tairawhiti DHB (143.7 per 100,000), followed by Northland DHB (142.6 per 100,000). The lowest mortality rate was in Nelson Marlborough DHB (111.9 per 100,000).