The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report, Cancer in Australia 2019, released today found there were 133.6 cases of breast cancer per 100,000 in the ACT in 2010-2014, the highest rate in the country.

The institute's spokesman Justin Harvey said a range of factors could have contributed to the high figure, which have been age standardised, including high screening rates and ACT's comparatively higher socio economic status.

While ACT had the highest breast cancer incident rate by a significant number, the territory's mortality rate was only slightly above the national average and the fourth highest in the country.

The only other cancer in the ACT in which the rate of cases was above the national average was pancreatic cancer - which had a small data set of 222 cases over five years - with the second highest rate at 13.1 cases per 100,000 people.

Breast cancer rates have decreased since the previous available data in 2008-2012 when the incidence rate was 135.7 and the mortality rate was 22.8 in 2010-2014.

Overall it's good news for the number of cancer cases and mortality rates in the ACT with the territory recording the lowest deaths per capita from all cancers combined.

In 2010-2014 there were 455.3 cases of cancer per 100,000 people in the ACT, with Queensland recording the highest rate at 534.2.

ACT also had the lowest mortality rate from cancer with 147.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2012- 2016, compared to Tasmania which had the highest rate of 188.5.

Institute spokesman Justin Harvey said there were a range of factors that could be contributing the ACT's high breast cancer rate.

"High screening rates could have some effect," he said.

"The other things that do have an effect for breast cancer are child bearing history.

"Women who haven't had children or had them at an older age [are at an increased risk]."

He said higher socio economic status was an indicator for increased risk of breast cancer which could also be contributing to ACT's high rate.

Mr Harvey said women of higher socio economic status tended to have children older and have fewer children.

"For the ACT in particular, the story is mostly good news," he said.

"With a lot of the lower survival cancers, the ACT has lower incident rates than other states and territories."

The report showed the number of new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2019 in Australia was expected to be three times that of 1982 - rising from 47,500 to 145,000.

While the number of cancer cases across the country is up, the report shows five-year survival rates from all cancers combined had improved from 50 per cent in 1986–1990 to 69 per cent in 2011–2015.

The largest survival improvements were seen in prostate cancer, kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple myeloma.

Mr Harvey said the increase in cancer cases was was partly explained by the ageing, and increasing size, of the population.

While survival rates continue to improve, the report shows that cancer remains a major cause of death in Australia.

"In fact, when we consider all types of cancer together, we see that they are responsible for more deaths than any other group of diseases, accounting for three in every 10 deaths in 2016," Mr Harvey said.

Lung cancer is expected to be the leading cause of cancer death in 2019, followed by colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer and pancreatic cancer.

Mr Harvey said while death and survival rates varied among different groups, people diagnosed with cancer in Australia generally have positive outcomes when considered in an international context.