Veronica Manouk was 20 when she noticed a mole on her left calf no bigger than a texta mark had grown into an "ominous, dark, horrible-looking thing".
Just a few weeks later, groggy after an emergency surgery, she looked down at the cavernous gouge where her perfect, whole limb used to be.
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"It was horrific. It looked like I was attacked by an ice-cream scoop," Ms Manouk laughed sardonically.
Cancer in all its forms can seem like a faraway, abstract spectre that affects other people. But Ms Manouk will never forget the visceral menace of Australia's leading cause of disease burden in Australia.
![Veronica Manouk, from Bathurst, was 20 when she was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma.](/web/20170203012215im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/4/i/m/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3z6n.png/1486082968655.jpg)
Her tiny mole had mutated into stage three melanoma and spread to the lymph nodes in her groin.
A 12-centimetre scar on her calf where the mole had been accompanied the ice-cream-scoop-shaped remnants of surgery to her groin.
"They cut quite a big slab of meat. I couldn't walk for about three weeks because of how much they had to cut out," she said.
The high school teacher in Bathurst is vigilant about attending her regular skin checks, knowing melanoma can recur in any place at any time.
![Professor David Currow said simple lifestyle changes could help cut Australia's shocking cancer rates.](/web/20170203012215im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/j/3/9/m/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gu3z6n.png/1486082968655.jpg)
The latest estimates suggest 2500 Australians between 25 and 49 years old will be diagnosed with melanoma in 2017.
"I'm turning 30 in May ... I don't know what to think about it. I thought my 21st birthday was going to be the last big birthday I celebrated," she said.
"But I know it could come back in three months or a year or 30 years," said the ambassador of skin cancer awareness campaign Pretty Shady.
"I don't want anyone to have to go through this."
More than 134,000 new cancers will be diagnosed in 2017, averaging 367 each day, according to the latest predictions from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
The all-cancer incidence rate will be 2.8 times higher than it was 35 years ago, shows the AIHW's Cancer in Australia 2017 report released Friday ahead of World Cancer Day on Saturday.
The rate of new cancer cases will rise from 383 per 100,000 in 1982 to 470 per 100,000 in 2017, the report shows.
Separate figures released Friday by the Cancer Institute NSW predicts 250,000 people across the state are expected to be diagnosed with cancer over the next five years.
The rates were shocking, said chief executive and chief cancer officer at the institute, Professor David Currow.
"In NSW, someone is diagnosed with cancer, every 13 minutes and cancer is responsible for a third of deaths across the state," Professor Currow said.
Prostate cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men, with 16,665 new cases predicted nationwide in 2017. Breast cancer is still the most common cancer among women, with 17,586 new cases predicted this year.
Roughly 47,800 people will die from cancer in 2017, an average of 131 deaths every day, with lung cancer the biggest cancer killer, followed by bowel, prostate, breast and pancreatic caners, the AIHW report predicts.
But death rates are falling. Overall cancer mortality has dropped from 209 per 100,000 people in 1982 to 161 per 100,000 in 2017, and the five-year survival rate has risen from less than half of all cancer patients in 1984-1988 to 69 per cent in 2009-2013.
The biggest survival improvements were among prostate cancer (95 per cent in 2017), Hodgkin's lymphoma, kidney cancer and myeloma.
Death rate was still dire for pancreatic cancer, with the chances of a patient surviving to five years just 8 per cent. Lung cancer also showed only slight improvements in survival rates (14 per cent among men and 19 per cent among women).
But there was ample opportunity to curb Australia's cancer rates, Professor Currow said. One third of cancers were avoidable through simple lifestyle changes, including quitting smoking, protecting skin from UV radiation, limiting alcohol intake and eating well and exercising, he said.
Cancer screening was also vital. "People can detect cancers early by participating in the relevant screening programs for them, including the free, national screening programs for cervical, breast and bowel cancers."
NSW had some of the best survival rates for cancer in the world, but that was no reason to be complacent, Professor Currow said.
"We also need to continue to look at reducing variation in cancer care to make sure people have access to the right treatment, at the right time, regardless of where they live across the state," he said.