Research has driven significant improvements in cancer prevention, early detection, screening and treatment. As a result, over the last two decades nearly 107,000 Australian lives have been saved. This has been possible with the help of people like you, our supporters, who help us fund and conduct world-class research.
Cancer Council NSW researchers have investigated cancer data in Australia between 1996-2015 to identify how this amazing result has been achieved. Here are the three most significant milestones that have helped us get to where we are today.
1. Reducing smoking rates
Australia’s tobacco control measures have successfully reduced smoking rates over the years. Previous studies have found that these measures have prevented 79,000 deaths from lung cancer alone between 1956 and 2015. Smoking rates have continued to fall, leading to major reductions in lung cancer death over the past 20 years.
Reducing smoking rates has also led to fewer deaths for many other cancer types, too, including:
- colorectum
- head and neck
- stomach
- bladder
- ovary
- oesophagus for females
- cervix.
