With help from our communities and international networks, we lead a gut cancer ecosystem to collaboratively create change to:

• Improve outcomes for people living with gut cancers

• Address inequity

• Enable better diagnosis, care and treatment

• Ensure people are better able to navigate the health system and manage their condition

When it comes to cancers of the digestive system, we have four major issues to tackle:

• With 17 Kiwis diagnosed every single day, gut cancers are collectively the most common form of cancer in New Zealand. Bowel cancer alone is the 3rd most common cancer diagnosis in New Zealand

• When someone is diagnosed with a cancer of the upper digestive system (oesophageal, stomach, biliary, pancreatic, and liver) they have under a 30% chance of surviving beyond 5 years. Pancreatic cancer alone has the lowest 5-year survival rate of all major cancers at just 12% in New Zealand

• some cancers of the digestive system have outcomes that disproportionately impact Māori and other minority groups

• funding for research, awareness, and support is drastically less for gut cancers when compared with cancers that have 5-year survival rates of over 90%.

The Gut Cancer Foundation’s immediate strategy is focused on addressing these issues by moving the organisation from a concentration on funding clinical trials to one with a much broader impact, addressing all the areas of need identified above:

• Research & Innovation - leading on innovative clinical and social research for cancers of the digestive system

• Equity - addressing barriers to treatment and care for all New Zealanders

• Support - partnering to deliver holistic services to meet the needs of the gut cancer community

• Voice - ensuring the needs of people living with gut cancer are understood and acted upon

• Sustainability - Ensuring future organisational and financial stability