Health Reports

A Canadian peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research

January 2023

Five-year cancer survival by stage at diagnosis in Canada

by Larry F. Ellison and Nathalie Saint-Jacques

Cancer staging is a way of classifying cancer according to its extent and spread at the time of diagnosis. The staging of cancer cases is important at the population level because it helps health professionals evaluate the effectiveness of early detection, including screening programs. For example, a shift in the stage distribution of cases towards lower stages at diagnosis after the initiation of a screening program provides some evidence for a successful program. The staging of cancer cases also helps with assessing trends in public health system demands and costs for cancer treatment. At the individual level, it guides clinical decisions regarding the most appropriate course of treatment. Along with other potential predictive factors such as age, sex and the histology of the cancer, the stage at which a cancer is diagnosed often provides considerable prognostic insight. It also permits the evaluation of treatment effectiveness.

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Five-year cancer survival by stage at diagnosis in Canada

Changes to acute-care hospitalizations among Indigenous children and youth: Results from the 2006 and 2011 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohorts

by Gisèle Carrière and Evelyne Bougie

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada placed child well-being foremost in its Calls to Action. Call to Action 19 calls upon the federal government to identify the gaps in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, including the measurement of long-term trends. Regularly reported national population health outcomes for Indigenous children and youth are important to evaluate health disparity and trends. Providing this evidence informs policy aimed at narrowing differences in health outcomes between population groups and aligns with priorities, such as the federal response to the TRC Calls to Action. However, information about these outcomes and trends for Indigenous children and youth has remained lacking, partly because routinely collected national administrative population health data typically lack information about Indigenous identity.

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Changes to acute-care hospitalizations among Indigenous children and youth: Results from the 2006 and 2011 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohorts

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