Almost half of us are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetimes with one in four dying from the disease.
The Canadian Cancer Society reports the five year survival rate for cancer has risen to 60 per cent.
Lung cancer continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer overall. Smoking is the main cause. The Cancer Society estimates 1 in 8 women will be afflicted with breast cancer and 1 in 7 men with prostate cancer.
More than 80 thousand Canadians will die from cancer in 2017 but since the peak in the cancer death rate in Canada in 1988, it’s estimated over 179,000 deaths have been avoided as a result of cancer prevention and control efforts.
The 5 year cancer survival rate has increased from 25% in the 1940s to 60% today.
96 per cent of all cancer deaths in Canada will occur in people aged 50 and over and 65 per cent of these will occur in people 70 and over.