The latest Canadian Cancer Statistics report is out, and it highlights some important trends in cancer rates across the country. Published by the Canadian Cancer Society in collaboration with Statistics Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, the report helps us understand how the impact of cancer is changing.
We’ve pulled out 7 key trends to help make sense of what’s happening.
1. After a long period of progress from 1984 to 2005, the rate of new cases of cervical cancer has stopped declining.
This suggests that Canada could be at risk of falling short of its goal of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040. We need to act now and work together as a society to ensure we meet the goal.
2. Mortality rates have been declining in recent years for most types of cancer.
This may be contributing to the slight decrease in the expected number of deaths in 2025, although projected population dynamics based on growth and aging are also factors.
3. Lung and colorectal cancer are some of the fastest declining cancers when it comes to the rate of new cases.
These declines are consistent across males and females, though the rates and timelines differ slightly.
4. Melanoma incidence is no longer increasing in males since 2016 but remains the fastest increasing cancer among females.
Between 1984 and 2016, the rate of new melanoma cases increased an average of 2.5% per year in males, but the rate has since levelled off.
5. Liver and intrahepatic bile duct incidence is decreasing in males, but a similar decrease is not yet observed in females.
Patterns like this highlight the importance of sex-specific and cancer-specific strategies to continue progress in stopping cancer before it starts.
6. Leukemia mortality is declining significantly.
Until recently, decline in leukemia mortality was only moderate: -0.8% per year between 1984 and 2017.
Now, mortality for leukemia is declining notably and significantly at -2.7% per year since 2017 (similar between males and females) which is triple the rate of decline.
7. Bladder cancer mortality is one of the fastest declining mortality rates.
It’s declining at -3.1% per year for males since 2016 and -3.6% per year for females since 2017. Bladder cancer mortality is now declining faster than any other reported cancer type among females.
Published every two years, the Canadian Cancer Statistics report helps us understand how far we've come – and how much further we need to go – in preventing, finding, and treating cancer.