Corowa has higher melanoma rate than state average: cancer council

Source: ABC.net.au, March 2014

The New South Wales Cancer Council says some people in the Corowa Shire have a significantly higher chance of getting melanoma than the average person in NSW.

New figures reveal 76 people out of every 100,000 will be diagnosed with melanoma in the Corowa area, compared with the state average of 48.

Cancer council spokeswoman Pip Grant says Corowa residents have a 57 per cent higher change of getting melanoma than their counterparts around NSW.

She says the reason for the significant difference may include young people not covering up when they were children and more young men working outside.

“There is a higher rate of melanoma from men compared to women in the western region and that is one of those lifestyle factors where the male workforce tends to be [outdoors] rather than the females being more indoors," she said.

“We need to get the areas of prevention up, we need to make sure people are well educated on screening.

“They are higher than a lot of the other areas that just sit on either side of the state average, these ones are actually significantly higher.

“The rates that you’re seeing are those kids that are now probably around 30 that didn’t really have that prevention message to the extent that is there now."

The cancer council says Corowa also has higher rates of lung and rectal cancer compared with the NSW average, and Deniliquin has more than double the rate of leukaemia than the state average