Cancer incidence in Canada, 2010
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Released: 2014-07-10
About 170,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in Canada in 2010, which translates to an incidence rate of almost 500 cases per 100,000 people. Although this is an 11.1% increase compared with a decade earlier, the age-standardized incidence rate, which controls for aging in the population, has actually decreased by 3.4% to 391.1 cancers per 100,000 people.
In 2010, the five most commonly diagnosed cancers continued to be lung (13.7% of all new cases), breast (13.5%), prostate (12.9%), colorectal (12.4%) and bladder (4.2%). These five cancers combined account for over half of all new cancers. The most commonly diagnosed cancers among males were prostate (25.3% of new cases), lung (14.2%), colorectal (13.1%), bladder (6.3%) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (4.3%). Among females the list included breast (27.3%), lung (13.1%), colorectal (11.6%), uterine (6.1%) and thyroid (4.7%).
The top five cancers remained the same for both sexes combined and males between 2000 and 2010. However, for females, lung cancer moved from third to second place past colorectal cancer, and thyroid cancer moved from ninth place in 2000 to fifth place in 2010.
In 2010, cancer was more likely to be diagnosed in males (incidence rate of 514.6 per 100,000 people) than females (483.1 per 100,000 people). Since 2000, the age-standardized incidence rate for all cancers combined has decreased by 9.2% among males but increased by 2.0% among females.
Note to readers
Incidence refers to the number of newly diagnosed cases of cancer.
Since cancer is more likely to occur in older people, the age structure of a population will have a strong influence on the cancer incidence rates observed. To allow more valid comparisons over time, age-standardized rates are used to control for differences in population age-structure. The age-standardized rate is the rate that would occur if the population of interest had the same age-structure as the standard population. The current standard population used here is the July 1, 1991 Canadian population.
Ontario and Quebec data do not currently include death certificate only (DCO) cases for cancers diagnosed in 2010. A DCO case occurs when a cancer is discovered through the cause of death information on a death certificate, as opposed to through a cancer report from the medical system. Quebec reported just under 1,400 DCO cases in 2009, and Ontario reported just over 1,000 DCO cases in 2007 (the most recent year that Ontario DCO cases are available).
Contact information
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