Mackay cancer diagnosis rates highest in Australia says Atlas study

Mackay is officially the cancer hotspot of the country with residents in one suburb twice as likely to be diagnosed with the devastating disease compared to the average Australian.

RACGP President Nicole Higgins says she is not surprised to see the higher rates of cancer in Mackay. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mackay is officially the cancer hotspot of the country with residents in the CBD 57 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with the devastating disease compared to the average Australian.

The unflattering percentage – produced from diagnoses reported from 2010 to 2019 – puts the Mackay metropolitan area at the number one position across the nation.

Berserker in Rockhampton falls in at second place with residents there 48 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with cancer with third place going to Bundaberg at 45 per cent.

The data was published in the Australian Cancer Atlas 2.0, a collaboration between Cancer Council Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology Collaboration. It comparatively models diagnoses from 1996 to 2019.

QUT Centre for Data Science director, Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen, said researchers could now use the results, which also mapped differences in survivability rates, to understand why there were hotspots and then how to tackle them.

While Atlas shows those living in the Mackay CBD are 57 per cent more likely than the average Aussie to be diagnosed with cancer, that statistic is considered conservative with recent figures revealing a much more damning picture.

The Mackay CBD is officially the cancer hotspot of Australia with 2019 data showing residents there are more than twice as likely as the average Australian to be diagnosed with cancer. Picture: Cancer Atlas 2.0

Using 2019 figures only, residents in that zone are actually more than twice as likely as the average Australian to be diagnosed with head and neck cancers, bowel cancer, melanoma, lung cancer, and oral cancer; 89 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with a rare cancer; 79 per cent more likely to receive a liver cancer diagnosis.

The elevated numbers, similar to those recorded against Berserker and Bundaberg, could stem from cancer patients listing a mailbox in the city as their address, researchers explain, with more scrutiny needed to definitely rule this out.

However, Mackay GP Dr Nicole Higgins said she was not surprised to see higher cancer rates for Mackay in general.

“There’s an opportunity out of this (study), to look at why our why our rates of particular cancers are higher,” the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president said.

RACGP President Nicole Higgins says she is not surprised to see the higher rates of cancer in Mackay. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“In general, in rural and regional Australia, our cancer rates are much higher than those in the big cities.

“Cigarettes, alcohol and obesity are the big risk factors, and Mackay sits right up there … we’ve now got environments where we’ve got takeaway and buttloads of it on every corner and it contributes to an environment that makes health choices concerning.”

The Atlas data shows smoking rates in the Mackay CBD were 44 per cent above the national average (see the above table for the full list of suburbs) but when it came to being overweight or obese, the rates were actually 10 per cent under the national average.

Similarly with drinking, the CBD scored eight per cent below the Australian average when it came to risky alcohol consumption, and regarding insufficient physical activity, the city was actually six per cent above the national average.

Dr Higgins said she was glad to see Mackay residents were turning towards healthier habits as she explained higher cancer diagnoses could also be attributed to UV and chemical exposure, a complacency among the agricultural sector towards getting skin checks, and poorer health literacy levels creating missed opportunities for prevention and early detections.

“It’s really important that people have a family doctor that they have regular check-ins with,” Dr Higgins said.

Originally published as Mackay cancer diagnosis rates highest in Australia says Atlas study