Travel costs a likely barrier for Māori in need of liver cancer treatment

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-08-12 04:00

New Zealand

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Māori are currently 31% more likely to die from liver cancer than non-Māori with the same diagnosis, but covering the travel costs associated with liver cancer surgery could help close this disparity. Researchers analysed the distance travelled by Māori and Pākehā patients to receive their first primary surgery for liver cancer and found that on average, Māori liver cancer patients travelled twice as far than their Pākehā counterparts. No such disparities were observed when researchers looked at the same data for stomach cancer patients, and this is likely due to the high centralisation of liver cancer surgery in Aotearoa. Authors of the study suggest providing financial support to Māori patients and that new efforts are made to provide liver cancer surgery in remote locations to make things more equitable.