World Cancer Day 2022

The College is very proud to have supported World Cancer Day 2022 with a particular focus on highlighting inequality in accessing radiation therapy for cancer treatment to close the gap in cancer care.

World Cancer Day was born on the 4 February 2000 at the World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium in Paris. The Paris Charter aims to promote research, prevent cancer, improve patient services, raise awareness and mobilise the global community to make progress against cancer, and included the adoption of World Cancer Day. The College and Targeting Cancer are fully committed to supporting the efforts to improve patient care highlighted each year on World Cancer Day.

To mark the day this year, Targeting Cancer released a video series with one short video showcased each day for seven consecutive days on the Targeting Cancer social media platforms, commencing 4 February. The series featured Targeting Cancer Campaign Ambassador, Julie McCrossin AM, interviewing radiation oncologists and health workers in Australia and New Zealand, highlighting the 2022 World Cancer Day theme ‘Close the Care Gap’ at the same time as raising awareness of radiation therapy.

The College’s President, Clin A/Prof Sanjay Jeganathan, said:

As a long-term supporter of this global initiative, RANZCR is proud to be part of World Cancer Day 2022. RANZCR is committed to improving health outcomes for all, which is very much aligned with the vision of the World Cancer Day initiative.

This video series explores the inequity in accessing radiation therapy at home and abroad with meaningful conversations. One in two cancer patients would benefit from radiation therapy at some time during their cancer experience. However, fewer than one in three patients in Australia and New Zealand will actually receive radiation therapy.

Julie McCrossin, herself a head-and-neck cancer survivor, said: “Wherever we live in the world, we deserve the best possible chance to survive cancer and that means we need to be able to receive radiation therapy when it benefits us. We can and will close the care gap for radiation therapy because it is essential for the wellbeing of people with cancer.”

We thank Julie for her indefatigable work, for her willingness to share her personal story to help others understand the intricacies of a cancer journey and for her dedication to tackling inequality of access to care.

There is a large body of work behind the campaigns to raise awareness on the care gap. Cancer overtook cardiovascular disease in 2019 to become the leading cause of Indigenous deaths. Indigenous populations experience a significant excess death rate and Julie has long been instrumental in raising awareness online and in person.

In a webinar from Cancer Australia and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) last year, Julie spoke to FRANZCR A/Prof Michael Penniment AM who is active in advocating for Indigenous patients to have equivalent cancer outcomes to the rest of the population. His experience in rural settings led to the establishment of the Alan Walker Cancer Centre in Darwin, which has significantly increased the utilisation of radiation oncology treatment in the Northern Territory since its inception, from around 22 per cent to 48 per cent of cancer patients.

This year’s World Cancer Day was the start of a three-year global campaign by the Union for International Cancer Control to raise awareness of the equity gap that affects almost everyone, and the barriers preventing people from accessing life-saving prevention services, diagnostics, treatment and care.

Cultural contexts, geographical location, gender norms, income and education levels and discrimination or assumptions based on age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability and lifestyle can all lead to wide discrepancies in the risks of developing and surviving cancer.

Here, in Australia and New Zealand, on World Cancer Day 2022, we started a conversation on closing the care gap in radiation therapy on social media, a conversation that needs to continue in many forums within our jurisdictions and our communities. The MATEC Action Plan (www.ranzcr.com/our-work/indigenous-health-and-engagement) provides detail on the College’s roadmap to addressing inequality and in our President’s words, “redressing the near absence of Indigenous doctors”.

Thanks for joining us to mark the day together and for your crucial help in closing the care gap.

Join our Targeting Cancer Campaign and help us raise awareness of radiation therapy as an effective treatment for cancer.

We’d love to hear from you if you have any feedback and suggestions via info@targetingcancer.com.au