Te Oranga Pūkahukahu and Cancer Disparities w/ Professor Sue Crengle: July 10, 2024

Lung cancer is the largest cancer contributor to the life expectancy gaps between Māori and non-māori, being the leading cause of death for Māori women and the second leading cause of death for Māori and non-māori men. In spite of this, Aotearoa has no national lung cancer screening program at all, even though similar programs exist for Breast, cervical and bowel cancer. 

To address this, a team of researchers at the University of Otago started a series of projects in collaboration with Te Whatu Ora to help develop a lung cancer screening pathway in Aotearoa, which they’ve called Te Oranga Pūkahukahu. 

Oto spoke to study lead Sue Crengle, Senior Māori Health Researcher at the University of Otago of Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha descent, to discuss the project and the impacts of lung cancer on Māori.