The report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the Australasian Association of Cancer Registries lists factors like excessive sun exposure and higher smoking rates, combined with a tendency to postpone medical visits, as contributing to cancer rates increasing in remote parts of the country.
Dr. Mark Short, from the Institutes' Health Registers and Cancer Monitoring Unit, said that between 2001 and 2003 the rates of melanoma and lung, head, neck and lip cancers were significantly higher in rural and remote areas compared to metropolitan regions.
In a media release following the report, Short said "men in rural and remote areas in particular, also had significantly higher rates of cancers diagnosed in advanced stages, which underscores the importance of getting regular health checks from their doctors to increase the likelihood of early detection of cancer."
According to the report, more than 100,000 Australians were diagnosed with cancer during 2006 with 39,200 cancer-related deaths the same year. The study also found one in three men will get cancer by the age of 75 while the figure for women is one in four.
