Nicola Coom: Cancer Society National CEO on the results of the State of Cancer report for 2025

There are areas for improvement in how we prevent cancer, with the number of new cases expected to jump in the next two decades.  

The Cancer Control Agency's latest State of Cancer report shows cancer's on the rise. 

Diagnoses are expected to rise from 30 thousand this year to more than 45 thousand in 2044. 

Cancer Society National Chief Executive Nicola Coom told Andrew Dickens people with cancer are living longer, but we could have less cancer to begin with if we introduced more screening. 

She says other OECD countries we compare ourselves to are preventing more cancer because they do far more in the cancer prevention space than we do. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the Cancer Control Agency has dropped as twenty twenty
five report and they have conclusions, and their conclusions is
we need more funding and we need earlier detection that
we can cancer cases will climb from just over thirty
thousand this year to more than forty five thousand by
twenty forty four. And half of those cases they say
could be prevented if we cut tobacco, dial back the booze,

(00:21):
and got serious about healthy living and sun safety. So
joining me now to talk about this is Nicola Kerman.
Nicola is the chief executive for the Southern Cancer Society.
Hello Nicoler, excuse me, Hello.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Nikola, Good morning Andrew.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
So how do these numbers compare to other countries. Do
we have more cancer in New Zealand than other places
or is this within the international standard?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Great question look in to New Zealand is unfortunately leading
the way in areas that we wouldn't want to be
leader in. So in terms of melanoma, we leave the
world in rate of diagnosis around melanoma. But there's a
lot of good news in this report. There's good news,

(01:08):
but we can do better. I think some of the
things they're really encouraging about this report is that our
survival rates are increasing, So that means the likelihood of
someone in New Zealand doing of cancer is declining and
the chances of them surviving greater than five years posted
diagnosis has also improved. But generally people in New Zealand

(01:31):
are living longer with cancer. Yes, they are in other
OECD countries as well. But I would say that other
OECD countries that we compare ourselves to are doing far
more in the cancer prevention space than we are, and
therefore they are preventing more cancer than we are in
New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
And is that because of more funding because you said
that in your conclusion earlier detection more funding. Are we underfunded?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yes, I'd say we are in key areas, and those
key areas would be around access to medicines. Look, we
had a significant increase in cancer medicines. The pharmac budget
was increased by six hundred and four million. We had
an uplift and that's resulted in more lives being saved.

(02:18):
But we can't stop there and do these one off
you know. I think we've got to get into ourselves
into a position in New Zealand where we're continually investing
in cancer and in health as opposed to reactively investing.
One of the things that this report does show is
there the things we're doing in the country that is
that are working well. So let's keep doing it. Let's

(02:43):
not do it as a one off or fund it
as a one off. Screening is an example of that
and prevention.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
And that is within our own orbits and we can
do that. That's up to us taking personal responsibility. But
I needed to get down to the point of what
kind of level of extra funding might we need to
help you achieve these goals.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, look, I think there's three key areas that this
government could fund or the next government, and they are
the introduction of lung cancer screening. This report shows that
one of the biggest areas that we could have an
impact on is lung cancer. Your half of all cancer

(03:25):
deaths are from.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Five Again, what sort of level of funding will be needed?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
What sort of money, So there's actually a business case
going to Treasury probably are right about now or in
the next couple of weeks to funds a lung cancer
screening program. So to establish that, we're probably talking anywhere
between sixteen to twenty million for a lung cancer to

(03:52):
introduce a lung cancer screening program in New Zealand. I
think the country country knows beal cancer screening. You know,
we could save significant numbers of lives if we started
screening people for bel cancer at age fifty. And I
know the government know that. I know they're making good steps.
That's been reduced from sixty to fifty eight already, but

(04:14):
we've got to have a plan to keep producing that
getting that down to fifty.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
All right, Nikola, thank you so very very much. That
is Nicola kumb from the Southern Kansas Society.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
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