Cancer diagnoses plan ‘short on ambition’
The Cancer Society says the New Zealand Cancer Action Plan fails to match the scale of the challenge, with cancer diagnoses expect to jump 50% in two decades.
A refresh of the New Zealand Cancer Action Plan released exclusively to The Post responded to forecasts estimating more than 45,000 New Zealanders a year will be diagnosed with cancer by 2044, driven by an ageing and growing population.
In 2025, 30,000 people were expected to get cancer.
The three-year action plan – from 2026 to 2029 – was published by the Cancer Control Agency and aimed to drive numbers down by setting the foundation for new cancer investment in future Budgets.
Cancer Society chief executive Nicola Coom has described the plan as “safe, pragmatic and sensible”, saying it reflected where the health system is today rather than how New Zealand intended to respond to the growing burden of cancer in 20 years’ time.
But she said it lacked the ambition needed to match the scale of the challenge ahead.
“Cancer outcomes are not transformed within three-year planning cycles. Shifting the dial on cancer requires a sustained 20-year commitment, backed by investment, measurable targets and a clear ambition for what success looks like.”
She said the plan did contain many positive initiatives, including developing a national cervical cancer elimination plan, the identified partnership opportunity to expand SunSmart and increasing participation in clinical trials.
She welcomed the focus on cervical cancer elimination, skin cancer prevention, genomics, diagnostics, screening, earlier diagnosis and precision medicine.
However, she said the plan was stronger on reviews, frameworks and system activities than articulating a long-term vision in cancer outcomes, and how impacts will be measured and demonstrated.
Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ chief executive Letitia Harding called for the Government to commit to a potential in the plan for a lung cancer screening programme to be introduced.
“We screen for breast, cervical, and bowel cancer, yet the cancer that kills the most New Zealanders still has no screening programme.”
Health NZ had been developing a case for a national lung screening programme, but Harding said little had been done to progress it.
Modelling suggested that over 20 years, the programme could detect around 9000 lung cancers and save more than 6000 lives – about 300 lives each year.
Cancer outcomes are not transformed within three-year planning cycles. Shifting the dial on cancer requires a sustained 20-year commitment, backed by investment, measurable targets and a clear ambition for what success looks like. Nicola Coom Cancer Society chief executive