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Cancer

Here you'll find our current definition of the critical illness, additional condition or child specific condition we cover. We've also listed any previous definitions we may have had. With each new definition we've highlighted what's changed from the previous definition.

Current definition

December 2023

Cancer – excluding less advanced cases

Any malignant tumour positively diagnosed with histological confirmation and characterised by the uncontrolled growth of malignant cells and invasion of tissue.

The term malignant tumour includes:

  • leukaemia;
  • Merkel cell carcinoma;
  • cutaneous angiosarcoma;
  • sarcoma and lymphoma except those that arise from or are confined to the skin (including cutaneous lymphomas and sarcomas).

For this definition of cancer, the following are not covered:

  • all cancers which are histologically classified as any of the following:
    • pre-malignant;
    • cancer in situ;
    • having borderline malignancy; or
    • having low malignant potential;
  • all tumours of the prostate unless histologically classified as having a Gleason score of 7 or above, or having progressed to at least TNM classification cT2bN0M0 or pT2N0M0 following prostatectomy (removal of the prostate);
  • all urothelial tumours unless histologically classified as having progressed to at least TNM classification T1N0M0;
  • malignant melanoma skin cancers that are confined to the epidermis (outer layer of skin);
  • all cancers (other than malignant melanoma) that arise from, or are confined to, one or more of the epidermal, dermal, and subcutaneous tissue layers of the skin without lymph node involvement or distant metastases;
  • cutaneous lymphoma unless it has progressed to at least TNM classification T3N0M0 or Stage IIB;
  • cutaneous sarcoma unless it is a dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans with fibrosarcomatous (DFSP-FS) changes;
  • neuroendocrine tumours without lymph node involvement or distant metastases unless classified as WHO Grade 2 or above;
  • gastrointestinal stromal tumours without lymph node involvement or distant metastases unless classified by either AFIP/Miettinen and Lasota as having a moderate or high risk of progression, or as UICC/TNM8 stage II or above.

Changes from previous definition

We've extended this definition to include skin cancers as well as sarcomas and lymphomas.

Previous definitions

Cancer – excluding less advanced cases

Any malignant tumour positively diagnosed with histological confirmation and characterised by the uncontrolled growth of malignant cells and invasion of tissue.

The term malignant tumour includes:

  • leukaemia;
  • sarcoma; and
  • lymphoma (except cutaneous lymphoma - lymphoma confined to the skin).

For the above definition, the following are not covered:

  • all cancers which are histologically classified as any of the following:
    • pre-malignant;
    • non-invasive;
    • cancer in situ;
    • having borderline malignancy; or
    • having low malignant potential;
  • malignant melanoma that is confined to the epidermis (outer layer of skin).
  • any non-melanoma skin cancer (including cutaneous lymphoma) that has not spread to lymph nodes or metastasised to distant organs.
    all tumours of the prostate unless histologically classified as having a Gleason score of 7 or above, or having progressed to at least TNM classification T2bN0M0.