Rationale

The Australian Cancer Atlas 2.0 – Technical Report is designed to provide further details about the methodology used to develop the Australian Cancer Atlas 2.0.

This technical report includes information about how the data were obtained for the Atlas, including data sources and ethical and data custodian approvals, how the different statistical measures were defined and the Bayesian statistical models used to calculate them, along with details about the methods used to visualise the results within the Atlas. The technical report also includes the relevant syntax in R that were used to run the various statistical models.

For more background information about the Australian Cancer Atlas 2.0, the previously released e-book should be read. This guide, developed for the first Australian Cancer Atlas, provides a more practical hand-on guide to those who are interested in developing a cancer atlas, and covers the theoretical background of Bayesian spatial models and the approaches used to select the most appropriate model.

List of Tables

• Table 2.1 Human Research Ethics Committee & data custodian approvals for cancer registry data.
• Table 8.1: Cancer types included in Australian Cancer Atlas 2.0.
• Table 10.1 Descriptions and definitions of the included cancer risk factors in Atlas 2.0.
• Table 12.1 Hospital Treatment types and codes included in Atlas 2.0.

List of Figures

• Figure 6.1 Estimated age-specific mortality rates for two small areas using different approaches.
• Figure 7.1 Impact of spatial smoothing on observed geographical data.
• Figure 14.1 Relative map view.
• Figure 14.2 Absolute map view.
• Figure 14.3 Combined absolute and relative map view.
• Figure 14.4 Temporal graph view.
• Figure 14.5 Examples of the V plot (top) and wave plot (bottom).
• Figure 14.6 The V-plot explained.
• Figure 14.7 Example of interpretation for the V-plot.
• Figure 14.8 Example of the transparency feature, off (left) and on (right).
• Figure 14.9 Example of a scatter plot.
• Figure 14.10 Patterns of area-specific estimates by broad region: percentage, number, and distribution.
• Figure 14.11 Example of the filter menu.
• Figure 14.12 Example of a Treemap.
• Figure 14.13 Example of bivariate map view: filters (left) and a comparison map (right).