Cancer rate doubles in 30 years: report

The number of cancer cases diagnosed in Australia has more than doubled in the past 30 years, but the survival rate has improved.

An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report says cancer cases rose from 47,417 to 123,920 between 1982 and 2014.

The biggest increases were for prostate, bowel, breast and lung cancer.

"This is due to the increasing size and age of the population, improved diagnosis through population health screening programs and improvements in technologies and techniques used for identifying and diagnosing cancer," AIHW spokesman Justin Harvey said.

However, five-year survival from all cancers combined have risen from 46 per cent in 1982–86 to 67 per cent in 2007–11.

The cancers that have had the largest survival gains in recent years are prostate cancer, kidney cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

More than half the cancer cases diagnosed in 2014 are expected to be in men.

It's estimated 45,780 Australians will die from cancer in 2014. The disease accounts for about three in 10 deaths in Australia.

The figures are in AIHW's Cancer in Australia 2014 report.