Raising cancer awareness through data

We are all too aware of cancer. After all, it is the leading cause of death in Canada, and virtually all families have mourned the loss of a loved one to this terrible affliction. The good news is that cancer can be prevented with lifestyle changes, and five-year survival for the most commonly diagnosed cancers exceeds 90% when caught at the first stage.

One in four Canadians who died in 2022 succumbed to cancer

Cancer remains the leading cause of death in Canada, claiming the lives of 82,412 people in 2022.

Over two in five Canadians have a lifetime probability of developing cancer

The overall lifetime probability of developing cancer stood at 44.3% in 2018, with men (45.1%) slightly more likely to develop cancer than women (43.5%).

In 2018, men had the highest lifetime probability of developing prostate cancer (12.3%), lung cancer (6.9%), colorectal cancer (6.2%), bladder cancer (4.5%), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (2.8%) and melanoma (2.5%).

Women had the highest lifetime probability of developing breast cancer (12.5%), lung cancer (7.0%), colorectal cancer (5.3%), uterine cancer (3.3%), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (2.2%) and melanoma (2.0%).

For women, the lifetime probability of developing cancer rose from 1997 to 2013 and has decreased since then.

For men, the lifetime probability of developing cancer has been falling since 2010.

Men are more likely to die from cancer than women

The overall lifetime probability of dying from cancer stood at 22.5% in 2020, with men (24.1%) more likely to die from cancer than women (21.1%).

In 2020, men had the highest lifetime probability of dying from lung cancer (5.0%), prostate cancer (3.3%), colorectal cancer (2.7%), pancreas cancer (1.5%), bladder cancer (1.1%) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (1.0%).

Women had a higher lifetime probability of dying from lung cancer (4.8%), breast cancer (2.8%), colorectal cancer (2.4%), pancreas cancer (1.5%), ovarian cancer (1.0%) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (0.8%).

Almost one-third of cancer deaths may be preventable

Avoidable deaths are those that occur among people under the age of 75 years and are considered preventable given changes in lifestyle or behaviours, or treatable given access to proper health care.

In 2020, cancers accounted for approximately 25,400 avoidable deaths, down from 25,700 in 2019. This corresponds to a 4% reduction in the avoidable mortality rate, from 63 per 100,000 population to 61 per 100,000 population.

Five-year survival over 90% for the five leading cancers when caught at the first stage

For the first time, we can provide, by stage at diagnosis, the odds Canadians face when given a cancer diagnosis for the five most commonly diagnosed cancers based on data from the Canadian Cancer Registry. These five cancers combined account for almost half of cancers diagnosed annually.

When caught at the first stage, the five-year net survival for colon, prostate and rectal cancer, as well as female breast cancer, exceeds 90%. For lung and bronchus cancer (lung), the five-year survival at the first stage was 61.5%. The survival estimates in this study reflect cases diagnosed among Canadians aged 15 to 99 from 2010 to 2017, excluding Quebec.