Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nicola Coom: Cancer Society National CEO on the results of the State of Cancer report for 2025

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Nicola Coom: Cancer Society National CEO on the results of the State of Cancer report for 2025 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now the Cancer Control Agency has dropped as twenty twenty
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: five report and they have conclusions, and their conclusions is
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  Speaker 1: we need more funding and we need earlier detection that
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  Speaker 1: we can cancer cases will climb from just over thirty
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  Speaker 1: thousand this year to more than forty five thousand by
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  Speaker 1: twenty forty four. And half of those cases they say
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  Speaker 1: could be prevented if we cut tobacco, dial back the booze,
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  Speaker 1: and got serious about healthy living and sun safety. So
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  Speaker 1: joining me now to talk about this is Nicola Kerman.
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  Speaker 1: Nicola is the chief executive for the Southern Cancer Society.
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  Speaker 1: Hello Nicoler, excuse me, Hello.
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  Speaker 2: Nikola, Good morning Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: So how do these numbers compare to other countries. Do
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  Speaker 1: we have more cancer in New Zealand than other places
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  Speaker 1: or is this within the international standard?
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  Speaker 2: Great question look in to New Zealand is unfortunately leading
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  Speaker 2: the way in areas that we wouldn't want to be
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  Speaker 2: leader in. So in terms of melanoma, we leave the
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  Speaker 2: world in rate of diagnosis around melanoma. But there's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of good news in this report. There's good news,
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  Speaker 2: but we can do better. I think some of the
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  Speaker 2: things they're really encouraging about this report is that our
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  Speaker 2: survival rates are increasing, So that means the likelihood of
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  Speaker 2: someone in New Zealand doing of cancer is declining and
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  Speaker 2: the chances of them surviving greater than five years posted
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  Speaker 2: diagnosis has also improved. But generally people in New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: are living longer with cancer. Yes, they are in other
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  Speaker 2: OECD countries as well. But I would say that other
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  Speaker 2: OECD countries that we compare ourselves to are doing far
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  Speaker 2: more in the cancer prevention space than we are, and
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  Speaker 2: therefore they are preventing more cancer than we are in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand.
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  Speaker 1: And is that because of more funding because you said
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  Speaker 1: that in your conclusion earlier detection more funding. Are we underfunded?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I'd say we are in key areas, and those
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  Speaker 2: key areas would be around access to medicines. Look, we
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  Speaker 2: had a significant increase in cancer medicines. The pharmac budget
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  Speaker 2: was increased by six hundred and four million. We had
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  Speaker 2: an uplift and that's resulted in more lives being saved.
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  Speaker 2: But we can't stop there and do these one off
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  Speaker 2: you know. I think we've got to get into ourselves
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  Speaker 2: into a position in New Zealand where we're continually investing
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  Speaker 2: in cancer and in health as opposed to reactively investing.
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  Speaker 2: One of the things that this report does show is
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  Speaker 2: there the things we're doing in the country that is
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  Speaker 2: that are working well. So let's keep doing it. Let's
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  Speaker 2: not do it as a one off or fund it
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  Speaker 2: as a one off. Screening is an example of that
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  Speaker 2: and prevention.
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  Speaker 1: And that is within our own orbits and we can
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  Speaker 1: do that. That's up to us taking personal responsibility. But
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  Speaker 1: I needed to get down to the point of what
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  Speaker 1: kind of level of extra funding might we need to
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  Speaker 1: help you achieve these goals.
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, I think there's three key areas that this
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  Speaker 2: government could fund or the next government, and they are
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  Speaker 2: the introduction of lung cancer screening. This report shows that
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  Speaker 2: one of the biggest areas that we could have an
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  Speaker 2: impact on is lung cancer. Your half of all cancer
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  Speaker 2: deaths are from.
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  Speaker 1: Five Again, what sort of level of funding will be needed?
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  Speaker 2: What sort of money, So there's actually a business case
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  Speaker 2: going to Treasury probably are right about now or in
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  Speaker 2: the next couple of weeks to funds a lung cancer
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  Speaker 2: screening program. So to establish that, we're probably talking anywhere
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  Speaker 2: between sixteen to twenty million for a lung cancer to
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  Speaker 2: introduce a lung cancer screening program in New Zealand. I
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  Speaker 2: think the country country knows beal cancer screening. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we could save significant numbers of lives if we started
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  Speaker 2: screening people for bel cancer at age fifty. And I
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  Speaker 2: know the government know that. I know they're making good steps.
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  Speaker 2: That's been reduced from sixty to fifty eight already, but
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  Speaker 2: we've got to have a plan to keep producing that
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  Speaker 2: getting that down to fifty.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Nikola, thank you so very very much. That
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  Speaker 1: is Nicola kumb from the Southern Kansas Society.
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  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:26
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• 4:29
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