Cancer statistics have prompted the Health Research Council to pour more than $1.2 million into two Massey University research projects aimed at improving care of Maori sufferers.
Statistics show Maori are 9 percent more likely to get cancer than non-Maori -- and 77 percent more like to die of it than other New Zealanders.
Council funding is aimed at improving overall cancer care for Maori patients and increasing the rate of survival for cervical cancer.
Dr Lis Ellison-Loschmann from the university's Centre for Public Health Research in Wellington will lead both projects.
One study will look at the issue of care of Maori patients, the other will investigate differences in cervical cancer survival rates between women of different ethnicities.
It will also look at differences in survival by socioeconomic status, age, and proximity to health services at time of diagnosis.
A team of 16 researchers including Professor Chris Cunningham, Professor Mason Durie and Professor Neil Pearce will conduct a national study of Maori diagnosed with cancer, their whanau and cancer care service providers.
Other researchers in that study, which has funding of $574,465, are drawn from District Health Boards, Maori primary health organisations, hospice organisations and the Cancer Society.
Dr Ellison-Loschmann said access to care, and the quality of care, could have a substantial impact on cancer outcomes, in terms of quality of life and survival.
"The worldwide burden of cancer has been increasing for the past few decades," she said.
"Cancer now surpasses chronic heart disease as the leading cause of death in New Zealand."
Study findings would form the basis for an integrated framework across primary, secondary, tertiary and palliative care services.
The intent was to improve the co-ordination of services for Maori experiencing cancer, and would include the development of a pilot programme in four primary care settings.
Dr Ellison-Loschmann has also secured funding of $665,198 for research into inequalities in cervical cancer survival in New Zealand.
"Most of the attention to date has been focused on cervical cancer in general, and very little consideration given to demographic differences in cervical cancer risks, screening treatment or survival," she said.
For the next three years she will lead a team of 10 researchers, who will link all cases of cervical cancer notified between 1994 and 2005, to death registrations to identify which factors account for ethnic differences in survival.
The findings will ultimately be used to minimise barriers and reduce inequalities in cervical cancer survival in New Zealand.
