Atlantic Canada has the highest cancer rates in the country, 25-year study shows

Atlantic Canada has the highest cancer rates in the country, according to a new nationwide report.

The report, released Tuesday, sheds a light on the prevalence of cancer in Canada, broken down by province and spanning 25 years.

According to the Canadian Cancer Statistics 2022 special report, which was jointly released by the Canadian Cancer Society, Statistics Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, cancer rates were highest in Atlantic Canada and Ontario between 1994 and 2018.

Specifically, the prevalence of cancer was highest in Newfoundland and Labrador, followed by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, in that order. Quebec was not included.

According to the report, the cancer prevalence per 100,000 people by province as of 2018 was:

• 5,105.3 per 100,000 (26,905 counts) for Newfoundland and Labrador
• 5,078.4 per 100,000 (39,045 counts) for New Brunswick
• 5,007.8 per 100,000 (47,825 counts) for Nova Scotia
• 4,655.6 per 100,000 (7,080 counts) for Prince Edward Island

A graph showing cancer prevalence per 100,000 people by province as of 2018. (Canadian Cancer Registry/Canadian Cancer Society)

Kelly Wilson Cull, the director of advocacy for the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), says the data shows a reality of more Canadians being diagnosed and living longer-term with cancer.

"This is a prevalence report and really what this points to is an important dataset, and that's really around how many Canadians are living with and beyond cancer in Canada today," said Cull, during an interview with CTV News on Thursday.

"And that number is quite stark at 1.5 million, and that is an increase over the last prevalence report that was just done just under a decade ago, which pinned that number at about one million."

Cull says the data is concerning as it shows cancer rates are increasing, but it also shows that more people are surviving the disease.

"The more concerning signal is that the number of cancers is increasing in Canada. This related to the incident rate – that shared number of people who are being diagnosed with cancer in Canada. This has a lot to do with our growing and aging population," she said.

"The other side of the coin is a bit more optimistic, and that's around the fact that more people are surviving cancer."

Cull says, although it isn't yet fully understood why cancer rates are highest in Atlantic Canada, tobacco and alcohol use could be contributing factors, in addition to an aging population.

"Then there's another factor here around modifiable risk factors. So things like tobacco use, excess weight, alcohol consumption, would also drive higher rates of cancer in certain areas," she said.

According to the study, most people -- 60.9 per cent -- who had cancer or were living post-cancer were five to 25 years out from their diagnosis. This duration accounted for the majority of people who had been diagnosed with breast, prostate and colorectal cancer – the three most prevalent types of cancers across Canada over the quarter-century.

A further 20.7 per cent were between two and five years out, and 18.4 per cent were zero to two years out.

The report also shows that cancers were generally more prevalent in rural settings compared to urban settings, over study periods of two and five years.

"We know that cancer is certainly more prevalent in rural communities, which speaks to many communities in Atlantic Canada, and so, that's another factor that's important to note as we look to things like system planning and how we support these 1.5 million people," said Cull.

As a cancer advocate, Cull says the CCS is looking to all levels of government to commit to sustainable long-term equitable funding for health systems that prioritize a targeted funding stream for cancer care.

"This prevalence report is coming out at a really important time because it really speaks to the huge volume of Canadians that are living with and beyond cancer in our society today ... And every day we're hearing about health-care challenges, health system crunch, health human resources, really existing in a system that feels very unsustainable right now," she said.

As far as what Atlantic Canada needs most, based off the prevalence report, Cull says health human resources is one of the main issues.

"We need to ensure that there is enough trained specialists across that practice to be able to support, in our case we're talking about cancer," she said. "So, health human resources is certainly a factor, but we're also really interested in what innovation in the cancer space looks like. How can we be looking at innovative practices? How can we be supporting research that helps to better understand cancer so that we can change the projectory of how cancer shows up in our communities moving forward."

According to Cull, the CCS has invested over $640 million in the last 10 years into cancer research.