Canadians diagnosed with most common cancers are more likely to survive the disease if it is detected at an earlier stage, according to a new Statistics Canada report.
The study, released Wednesday, offers the first-ever Canadian estimates of five-year cancer survival rates by stage at diagnosis.
It looks at cases of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in Canada between 2010 and 2017, including lung, breast, prostate, colon and rectal cancers — all of which together account for nearly half of all diagnosed cancers in Canada .
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The results show that the probability of survival for these types of cancer decreases if they are diagnosed at a more advanced stage of the disease.
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For example, women diagnosed with breast cancer have a five-year net survival of 100 percent when the disease is detected at stage I, 92 percent at stage II, 74 percent at stage III, and 23 percent at stage IV.
In colon cancer, the five-year net survival rate dropped from 92 percent in stage I to 11 percent in stage IV, while in prostate cancer the prognosis was close to 100 percent for the first three stages, then dropped to 41 percent in stage IV .
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Overall, net survival rates exceeded 90 percent for all cancers studied that were caught at stage I, except for lung cancer.
For lung cancer, the survival rate dropped by just over 20 percentage points between stages I and II of the disease, as well as from stage II to III, and dropped another 13 points from stage III to IV.
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“The work shows the stage of diagnosis as a key predictor of prognosis and highlights the importance of detecting cancer at an early stage, when treatment is most effective,” the study said.
“The findings can be used by Canadian health professionals to better inform health policy and treatment evaluation.”
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The study found some exceptions to the general trend of early diagnosis leading to higher survival rates.
In prostate cancer, statistics show that survival rates are consistently around 100 percent for the first three stages of the disease, but drop significantly when diagnosed at stage IV.
Survival rates also did not improve at any stage for cases of colon or rectal cancer, according to the data.
The differences in outcomes between men and women are most pronounced in lung cancer, where net survival rates among women exceed those of men at every stage.
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Age is also an important predictor, as survival rates for all cancers studied tend to decline the older the patient, especially for early-stage lung cancer.
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Between 2010 and 2012 and from 2015 to 2017, there was a significant increase in survival rates among women with stage IV prostate and breast cancer, as well as among early- and late-stage lung cancer stage.
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