Cancer is on track to pass heart disease as the leading killer of Canadians by 2010, the Canadian Cancer Society said Wednesday.
The group's latest look at cancer rates across the country estimates there will be 145,500 new cases of cancer diagnosed and 68,300 deaths from the disease this year. The most common cancers continue to be breast cancer for women and prostate cancer for men
The 2004 statistics also show that while a person's individual risk of developing cancer remains relatively stable, the number of new cancer cases and deaths have been rising steadily as the Canadian population increases and ages.
Experts project that the number of new cases of cancer diagnosed each year in Canada will increase by 60 per cent over the next two decades.
"Trends suggest that, by 2010, cancer will be the leading cause of death in Canada," Dr. Barbara Whylie, chief executive officer of the Canadian Cancer Society, said in a statement. "This disease is taking a huge toll on Canadians personally. It's straining our health-care system, and it's going to get worse as our population ages.
"Canada urgently needs to implement a national co-ordinated strategy to fight cancer."
The Canadian numbers also show that 38 per cent of women and 43 per cent of men will develop cancer during their lifetimes. Twenty-three per cent of women and 28 per cent of men will die of the disease.
Among men, the cancer death rate has been slowly declining since 1989 as a result of decreases in death from lung, colorectal and other cancers. The overall cancer incidence rate has also started to decline.
Cancer incidence rates among women have risen slightly since 1989, owing largely to lung cancer and breast cancer. Among women, the incidence of lung cancer and death rates is three times as high as rates in 1975.
"The use of tobacco products is the single most important cause of preventable, early cancer deaths," the report says. "Among men, smoking is responsible for more than one-third of potential years of life lost due to all cancers. Among women, smoking is responsible for about one-fifth of potential years of life lost due to all cancers."
The disease is also putting a tremendous strain on Canada's economy. Of the total indirect costs of illness in Canada in 1998 ($75-billion), cancer accounted for $11.8-billion (16 per cent), ranking second overall.
