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Neglected cancers

The Garvan Institute is calling for more focus on neglected cancers. There are 186 types, which currently account for 37% of cancer diagnoses and nearly 53% of all cancer deaths.

What are neglected cancers?

‘Rare’ or less common cancers occur in around 200 in 100,000 Australians a year, although collectively they are responsible for around a third of all cancer patients and have a high mortality rate: accounting for one in two cancer deaths.
Neglected cancers types   

Key statistics

37%

37%

‘Rare’ and less common cancers together represent around 37% of all cancers diagnosed

All ages

All ages

‘Rare’ and less common cancers occur across all age groups

Mortality rate

Mortality rate

The less common cancers have a much higher mortality rate than more common ones

1 in 2

1 in 2

Less common cancers account for 1 in 2 cancer deaths

Research into less common cancers at Garvan

Advances in medical and genomic research (looking at the interplay between all our genes together and with our habits and our environment) have improved our understanding of cancer so that cancers once defined by their location in the body, such as breast or skin, may now be categorised by harmful variations to their genetic structure. We now know that at a cellular level, common cancers are actually composed of multiple subtypes and that allows researchers and pharmaceutical companies to target specific medicines to these genetic abnormalities far more effectively.

Our neglected cancers research    More