CANBERRA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Cancer outcomes for Indigenous Australians are improving, but Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people remain more likely to contract the most deadly cancers, a government report said.
The report, which was published on Tuesday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), revealed that cancer incidence and mortality rates among the Indigenous population are declining.
It said that the cancer incidence rate for Indigenous people fell from 342 cases per 100,000 people in 2011 to 315 cases per 100,000 people in 2025, while the cancer mortality rate declined from 148 to 105 deaths per 100,000 Indigenous people in the same period.
The report noted that cancer incidence and mortality rates remained higher in 2025 for Indigenous Australians than the non-Indigenous population, but that the decreases since 2011 have been greater among the Indigenous population.
Despite the improvements, AIHW spokesperson Justin Harvey said in a media release that Indigenous Australians are twice as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to be diagnosed with cancers that have a five-year survival rate below 30 percent. ■
