Prostate cancer

Published by other organisations

• The document is on cancer.org.nz

  Cancer Society of New Zealand – Te Kāhui Matepukupuku o Aotearoa

  Prostate Cancer | Matepukupuku Repeure: A guide for men with prostate cancer

  Booklet· 2019

Research

3 papers on prostate cancer, from the research assessed for this site. Each is summarised below in words written for this site, not the authors’ own.

1. The most commonly diagnosed and most common causes of cancer death for Māori New Zealanders (opens on the publisher’s website)

   New Zealand Medical Journal, vol 133, no 1521, pages 77-96 (4 September 2020) · 2020

   Jason K Gurney, Bridget Robson, Jonathan Koea, Nina Scott, James Stanley, Diana Sarfati

   What it found

   Ranks the most commonly diagnosed cancers and the most common causes of cancer death for Māori using registry and mortality data from 2007-2016. Lung cancer was both the most diagnosed (around 401 registrations a year, 42 per 100,000) and the leading cause of death (around 311 deaths a year, 32 per 100,000), ahead of breast, prostate and colorectal for diagnoses, and breast and colorectal for deaths. Māori incidence exceeded non-Māori for most of these cancers, most markedly for lung, and the paper documents a broader survival gap across cancer types.

   How it was done

   descriptive epidemiology, national cancer registry and mortality data for Māori, 2007-2016

   Why it matters

   Gives a ranked, Māori-specific picture of where the cancer burden actually falls, useful for prioritising advocacy and services rather than working from unranked or non-Māori-specific figures.

   What it does not settle

   Data run to 2016, now roughly a decade old, so more recent registry updates may have shifted the exact figures even if the ranking holds.

   Full textFull text, via nzmj.org.nz (open access).

   Read it free: The most commonly diagnosed and most common causes of cancer death for Māori New Zealanders (opens on another organisation’s website)

2. Inequalities between Maori and non-Maori men with prostate cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand (opens on the publisher’s website)

   What it found

   This review asks why Māori men are less likely than non-Māori men to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, yet significantly more likely to die of it once diagnosed - a mortality rate around 1.5 times higher. Drawing on existing New Zealand studies, the authors found Māori men are screened for prostate cancer roughly half as often as non-Māori men, are more often diagnosed at a later or metastatic stage, and less often receive prostatectomy or low-dose brachytherapy. They link this to institutional racism, weaker continuity of care in general practice, and socioeconomic barriers such as travel and accommodation costs for treatment based in major centres.

   How it was done

   narrative literature review, by Egan, Kidd, Lawrenson, Cassim, Black, Blundell, Bateman and Broughton, funded by the Movember Foundation

   Why it matters

   It identifies specific, checkable points along the pathway - screening rates, staging data gaps, treatment choice - where the gap between Māori and non-Māori prostate cancer mortality opens up.

   What it does not settle

   As a narrative review it draws together earlier NZ studies of varying size and region (some single-city, some Midland-region only) rather than presenting new data of its own. The authors themselves note that national registry data on prostate cancer stage at diagnosis is about 75% recorded as 'unknown', which limits what any of the underlying studies can show.

   Full textFull text, via the published PDF.

3. Stage at diagnosis for Māori cancer patients, disparities, similarities and data limitations (opens on the publisher’s website)

   What it found

   An analysis of New Zealand Cancer Registry records for 196,967 patients diagnosed between 2007 and 2016, checked against separate clinical audit data for breast, colon, rectal, lung and stomach cancer. Māori patients were less likely to be diagnosed with localised disease for several cancers, most markedly prostate (odds ratio 0.50) and lung (odds ratio 0.53), though this did not hold for every cancer type. The registry also understated how many patients had no recorded stage: clinical audits found 38% of Māori lung cancer patients were unstaged, well above what the registry showed. A survival gap between Māori and non-Māori remained even after accounting for stage.

   How it was done

   retrospective registry analysis cross-checked against clinical audit data, 196,967 patients, 2007–2016

   Why it matters

   The registry undercounting missing stage data means Māori cancer outcomes cannot be fully monitored from that registry alone, which is a data problem sitting underneath the clinical one.

   What it does not settle

   Built from the abstract, so detail beyond the stated results and the headline odds ratios has not been seen.

   Abstract onlyAbstract only, via the NZMJ journal page.