Queensland cancer patients are more likely to die if they are indigenous or poor, according to a new report.
Cancer patients from indigenous communities and low socioeconomic circumstances have a lesser chance of survival, a report card into the effectiveness of Queensland cancer surgery has found.
The Queensland Cancer Quality Index, which has been published online and hailed as an Australian-first, was designed to show what was and was not working in the state’s health system.
Breast cancer patients had the best survival rate (89 per cent), while just 5 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients survived for five years after their surgery.
Queensland Cancer Control Safety and Quality Partnership chairman Euan Walpole said the index painted a picture of cancer care in the state.
And for people in the regions, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, it was not great news.
Just 57 per cent of indigenous patients with breast cancer, for example, received surgery within 30 days of diagnosis, compared with 80 per cent of non-indigenous patients.
Seventy-two per cent of financially disadvantaged breast cancer patients received surgery within 30 days of diagnosis, compared to 88 per cent of affluent patients.
“There is a difference in cancer survival from regional to urban, which is a fairly common one, as well as one related to socioeconomics, to the rich do better than the poor,” Associate Professor Walpole said.
“The indigenous lose out on both sides, they do by far the worst and that’s a well known factor.
“The indigenous data is often small, but it’s still uniformly worse than the other patients.”
Associate Professor Walpole said the index, which would also include data on other treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy from next year, would be a useful tool for policymakers.
“We knew that so many people came (for surgery), so many people died, and we know there’s inequality,” he said.
“The inequity’s been there for a while, but the trouble is we don’t know why.
“It’s about how you can pull that apart, so what we were trying to do is look at the story of cancer and find out why there’s a problem.
“…It’s not until you lift up the stone you see where the problem is.”
Cancer Council Queensland spokeswoman Katie Clift said the index was a “critical report”, considering there were more than 20,000 cancer diagnoses in Queensland every year.
“With those disparities and those gaps, it’s important to understand why the indigenous population and the socioeconomically disadvantaged groups do have to wait longer for that surgery,” she said.
“We need to find out why those gaps are there and, again, find the ways we can close that gap and make sure people get their surgery in a more timely manner.”
The Queensland Cancer Quality Index had four grades – very good, good, fair and poor – to give to five crucial indicators.
Top marks were given to treatment effectiveness and safety.
Efficiency was “good” while accessibility and equitability both rated “fair”.