Cancer survival rate increases

Early detection of cancer is improving survival, according to Statistics Canada numbers. As a result, the number of Canadians living with cancer is rising.

As of January 1, 2005, 2.2% of Canada's population (695,000 people, or 1 in 46 people) had been diagnosed with an invasive cancer at some point in the previous 10 years. Some individuals experienced more than one invasive cancer over the 10-year period, with the number of cancer cases totalling 723,000.

The most common cancers account for just over half of all cases (as of January 1, 2005):

breast cancer (20.5% of all reported cancers)
prostate cancer (18.7 % of all reported cancers)
colorectal cancer (12.9% of all reported cancers)
5.1% were lung cancer
5.0% were bladder cancer

Diagnosis statistics:

1 in 111 women had been diagnosed with breast cancer
1 in 118 men had been diagnosed with prostate cancer (38% of all cancers in men)

Prevalence of cancer increases with age

The percentage of Canadians living with a diagnosis of cancer rose sharply with age, peaking at 80 to 84. However, the patterns of increase differed between the sexes. The percentage was higher in women than in men before age 60. Thereafter, the percentage in men surpassed that for women, mostly because of a sharp rise in prostate cancer, and increased much more rapidly in men than in women.

Differences between the sexes in the percentage of people with cancer were attributable to differences in the number of cancers diagnosed and survival. The prevalence of most cancers increased with age. Exceptions were testicular cancer among men, cervical and thyroid cancer among women, and Hodgkin lymphoma and brain cancer among both sexes.

Time since diagnosis a good indicator

As noted by cancer researchers in other countries, estimates of the prevalence of cancers diagnosed within 2, 5 and 10 years are useful for resource allocation and cancer care planning.

Just over 217,000 cancers had been diagnosed in the two-year period 2003 and 2004 among people who were still alive on January 1, 2005. People in the first or second year post-diagnosis are generally at a stage of the disease when they are undergoing primary treatment or recovering from its effects.

In the period from two to five years since diagnosis, a time requiring close clinical follow-up for recurrence, just over 237,000 cancers had been diagnosed in people still alive on January 1, 2005.