March 03, 2021
DHB data used to push Maori lung cancer action
The Cancer Control Agency Te Aho o Te Kahu wants district health boards to help it understand why mortality rates for lung cancer are three to four times higher for Māori than non-Māori.
The agency today released its Lung Cancer Quality Improvement Monitoring Report, which analyses DHB data.
Chief executive Diana Sarfati says understanding what is happening on the ground will help to identify unwanted outcomes and address the post-code lottery in cancer care and diagnostics.
Māori have the lowest overall survival of all ethnic groups, with 37 percent of people alive one year after diagnosis compared to 40.9 percent of Pākehā.
Professor Sarfati says a key area of improvement is ensuring earlier diagnosis, rather than the current situation where almost half of lung cancer diagnoses are made in the emergency department, which is higher than other OEDC countries.
Each year 1800 New Zealanders die of lung cancer.
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