Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2023

Climate Change and Cancer: Are we prepared? (#298)

Drew Meehan 1 , Vi Vu 1 , Amanda McAtamney 1 , Tanya Buchanan 1 , Megan Varlow 1
  1. Cancer Council Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

The mechanisms through which climate change activities will affect both cancer control (including cancer prevention) and healthcare services are vast. They include extreme heat, natural disasters, vector ecology, air pollution, environmental degradation, water, and food supply impacts. The published evidence in this field is rapidly evolving, garnering public interest and research funding, meaning that it is something that should be on everyone’s watch list. As part Cancer Council Australia’s policy development work, we have completed a desktop review of the literature and prepared a watching brief on the issue. While there is still a need for more robust evidence to fully understand the consequences of climate changes on cancer control, we believe future national policy should consider how to improve cancer prevention in light of increasing cancer risk due to the effects of climate change, and how to best support people affected by cancer when they encounter climate change-related barriers to optimal care. Potential policy priorities include; addressing air pollution through the lens of cancer prevention, investigating obesity risks and responses with climate change, exploring methods of cancer screening that are not temperature dependent, considering the design of programs which maintain cancer screening for those living in areas with extreme heat, encouraging resilient cancer care facilities which have contingencies for care during times of disaster, and supporting research outputs focusing on climate change and cancer in the Australian context. With the growing number of natural disasters, and increasingly dangerous levels of air pollution, now is the right time to be planning for the effects of climate change on cancer control.