canadians may be less likely to die from cancer than they were two decades ago, but a new study says the country has plenty of work to do if it wants to keep pace with other developed nations.
the report, titled
mortality due to cancer 2020: benchmarking cancer mortality in canada
, gave the country a ‘b’ when it comes to cancer morbidity — good for eighth place amongst the 17 countries studied — with 190 deaths per 100,000 people.
“canada’s grade for overall mortality rate due to cancer and for prostate and colorectal cancers specifically means that while canada performs better than half of comparator countries, there is much room for improvement,” said monika slovinec d’angelo, the director of health, healthcare and wellbeing for the
conference board of canada
, the group that conducted the study.
the research combined 100 different types of cancer to compare mortality rates but took a deeper dive on the big three — lung, colorectal and prostate — which account for over 40 per cent of deaths from the disease. it compared these findings to those from a host of other nations, including australia, finland, france, germany, ireland, the u.k. and the u.s. although canada fared reasonably well in terms of overall morbidity, it trailed most countries in deaths from lung cancer specifically.