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This paper applies economic concepts from measuring income inequality to an exercise in assessing spatial inequality in cancer service access in regional areas. We propose a mathematical model for accessing chemotherapy among local government areas (LGAs). Our model incorporates a distance factor. With a simulation we report results for a single inequality measure: the Lorenz curve is depicted for our illustrative data. We develop this approach in order to move incrementally towards its application to actual data and real-world health service regions. We seek to develop the exercises that can lead policy makers to relevant policy information on the most useful data collections to be collected and modeling for cancer service access in regional areas., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

Statements for public health purposes such as "1 in 2 will get cancer by age 85" have appeared in public spaces. The meaning drawn from such statements affects economic welfare, not just public health. Both markets and government use risk information on all kinds of risks, useful information can, in turn, improve economic welfare, however inaccuracy can lower it. We adapt the contingency table approach so that a quoted risk is cross-classified with the states of nature. We show that bureaucratic objective functions regarding the accuracy of a reported cancer risk can then be stated., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure

The meaning of public messages such as "One in x people gets cancer" or "One in y people gets cancer by age z" can be improved. One assumption commonly invoked is that there is no other cause of death, a confusing assumption. We develop a light bulb model to clarify cumulative risk and we use Markov chain modeling, incorporating the assumption widely in place, to evaluate transition probabilities. Age-progression in the cancer risk is then reported on Australian data. Future modelling can elicit realistic assumptions., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures