There are encouraging signs in the fight against cancer in Canada.
A report released by Statistics Canada said new cancer cases decreased from 542 per 100,000 people in 2016 to 529 per 100,000 people in 2017.
In 2017, over 149,000 new cancer cases were diagnosed among people living in Canada, according to the report. The report also showed the overall cancer rate from 2012 to 2017 decreased by 1.2 per cent every year, after accounting for the changing age structure of the population over time.
The most common types of cancer diagnosed, among all new cancer cases, continued to be breast (12.9 per cent), lung and bronchus (12.2 per cent), prostate (11.8 per cent), colorectal (10.6 per cent) and bladder (5.1 per cent). Statistics Canada said those five types of cancer accounted for over half of all the new cancer diagnoses. However, the rates of three of the five most common cancers decreased in the years leading up to 2017.
"From 2014 to 2017, the lung and bronchus cancer incidence rate underwent an annual decrease of 4.1 per cent. Similarly, the colorectal cancer incidence rate declined by 6.8 per cent annually from 2015 to 2017. The prostate cancer incidence rate also decreased, down an average of 4.3 per cent every year from 2008 to 2017," stated the report. "However, no significant changes were observed for either breast or bladder cancer during this same time period."
In general, the numbers showed males are diagnosed with cancer more often than females. In 2017, just over 77,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed among males and 72,365 were diagnosed among females. Among males, the five most commonly diagnosed cancers of all new cases were prostate (22.9 per cent), lung and bronchus (11.8 per cent), colorectal (11.4 per cent), bladder (7.6 per cent), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (5.0 per cent). Among females, breast cancer was by far the most frequent diagnosis, accounting for 26.5 per cent of all new cases, followed by lung and bronchus (12.7 per cent), colorectal (9.8 per cent), uterine (7.2 per cent), and thyroid (4.4 per cent).
Age is also a factor.
Among all new cancer cases reported in 2017, 58.6 per cent were diagnosed in people aged 65 and older, 36.5 per cent were diagnosed among people aged 40 to 64, and 4.9 per cent were diagnosed in those younger than 40. Statistics Canada said prostate cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer in males aged 40 to 64 (22.8 per cent) and 65 and older (24.3 per cent). However, nearly one in five cancer cases diagnosed among males younger than 40 was testicular cancer (19.4 per cent).
