Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa

Bowel cancer is New Zealand's cancer – affecting men and women, young and old. Each year, almost 3,000 New Zealanders are newly diagnosed – making it our most common cancer affecting both men and women.

Bowel cancer is also New Zealand's second most deadly cancer. Currently, New Zealanders diagnosed with bowel cancer have only a 55% chance of surviving more than five years. Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa believes that this could increase, conservatively, to a 75% chance with improved screening and treatment, as well as heightened public awareness of symptoms and the importance of early diagnosis. If there are delays in diagnosis or treatment the cancer can spread and chances of survival are reduced.

Therefore, it is of major concern that, by international standards, a smaller proportion of New Zealand bowel cancer patients are diagnosed at an early stage of the disease compared with Australia, the UK, the US and Hong Kong. In more than 1 in 5 newly diagnosed New Zealanders, the cancer has already spread to distant organs of the body (metastatic).

This has led to New Zealand having one of the highest death rates from bowel cancer in the developed world. Three times as many people die as a result of colorectal cancer than road traffic accidents.

There are ethnic, socioeconomic and regional inequalities in regard to bowel cancer within New Zealand. Māori have poorer bowel cancer outcomes than the general population – particularly Māori women, for whom outcomes are worsening over time. In addition, people living in deprived areas, or at a distance from a cancer centre, are more likely to die from bowel cancer.

Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa aims to address this major health issue of national significance with our 2015 Call to Action.

Primarily, we aim to reduce the impact of bowel cancer on our community. It is our belief that, by working together with all levels of government and the community at large, we can deliver a significant reduction in the number of New Zealanders dying from the disease and an improvement in the quality of life for patients and their families. Regional, socioeconomic and ethnic disparities need to be eliminated – where you live and to which ethnic group you belong should not determine the timeframe for care and access to services.

We have, therefore, developed the Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa 2015 Call to Action, which sets out 10 Key Calls we ask to see achieved before 2015.

Guided by the over-arching principles of improved outcomes and equitable care at every stage of the patient and whānau journey, we call to action the New Zealand community and all levels of the government to work together before 2015 to reduce the impact of bowel cancer for all New Zealanders and to prevent thousands of New Zealanders dying of the disease.

Download the Call to Action: PDF 5Mb

Our 10 Key Calls to Action

1	Rates of bowel cancer in New Zealand are among the highest in the world and our outcomes are among the worst. The Ministry of Health should report regularly on our performance relative to other countries. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for regular and transparent reporting on bowel cancer outcomes* *compared to other developed countries.*
2	1 in 2 New Zealanders do not know the symptoms of bowel cancer. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for education to raise awareness of bowel cancer symptoms and lifestyle modification to help reduce risk of developing cancer.*
3	Bowel Cancer screening can potentially save 1 in 3 people with bowel cancer from dying of the disease. It is almost certain that New Zealand will not have a National Screening Programme in place for at least 8 years.13 During this time another 10,000 New Zealanders will die from bowel cancer. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for a National Screening Programme to be fully implemented by 2015.*
4	Data show that Māori and people living in deprived areas or at a distance from a cancer centre are more likely to die from bowel cancer than other New Zealanders. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for equitable access to bowel cancer services throughout New Zealand.*
5	Many countries have best practice guidelines for managing bowel cancer, including Australia and the UK. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for comprehensive National Bowel Cancer Management* *Guidelines and accompanying National Minimum Standards against which all health care providers* *must be held to account. The public need to know the outcomes.*
6	Management of bowel cancer requires input from a broad range of specialists, but for patients, this can be complex, confusing and can lead to accumulated delays. In New Zealand, access to these specialists depends on where you live and where you get treatment. Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for all patients diagnosed with bowel cancer to be discussed by bowel cancer experts at a multi-disciplinary meeting, with bowel cancer care coordinators to guide patients through the care pathway and help ensure all patients have timely access at all stages of the journey, regardless of where they live and whether they are treated in the public or private sector.
7	In the UK, shorter waiting times for referral for suspected cancer have led to earlier diagnoses for patients. Currently, access to first specialist consultation and waiting times for first specialist consultation vary throughout New Zealand. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for a maximum 4-week wait between GP referral and first seeing a specialist for evaluation of suspected bowel cancer.*
8	In New Zealand, only half of all patients have appropriate diagnostic investigations within 2 weeks of seeing a specialist, with some waiting longer than a year. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for a maximum 2-week wait for full diagnostic examination after seeing a specialist in patients with high-risk symptoms.*
9	New Zealanders with advanced bowel cancer have poorer access to effective drug treatments than if they lived in the UK, Australia, Canada or the US. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for improved access to drug treatments for advanced bowel cancer. Appropriate bowel cancer drugs must be funded.*
10	About 1 in 3 patients who have potentially curative surgery for bowel cancer will die as a result of recurrence. *Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa calls for systematic and regular follow-up of all patients (public and private) including colonoscopy when appropriate. National standards for follow-up care*.

Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa has links with seven other major cancer non-government organisations. This collaboration, CANGO, is calling on the government to address some critical issues regarding cancer in New Zealand. Details of these issues can be viewed in the CANGO manifesto.

Call to Action

Our 10 Key Calls to Action

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10