Remoteness of residence and survival from cancer in New South Wales

Objective: To analyse cancer survival in New South Wales by geographic remoteness. Design, setting and participants: A survival analysis of all patients with cancers diagnosed in NSW between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 1996. Survival was determined to 31 December 1999. Main outcome measures: The relative excess risk (RER) of death over 5 years was estimated for each geographic remoteness category relative to the highly accessible category for 20 cancer types adjusted for age, sex, years since diagnosis and, subsequently, stage of cancer at diagnosis. Results: There were statistically significant differences in the RER of death across remoteness categories (P