Progress in Cancer Control Leads to Significant Number of Cancer Deaths Avoided in Canada.

It is currently not known how many more cancer deaths would have occurred among Canadians if cancer mortality rates were unchanged due to various modern human interventions. The objective of this study was to estimate the number of cancer deaths that have been avoided in Canada since the age-standardized cancer mortality rate peaked in 1988. We applied the age-specific cancer mortality rates from 1988 to the Canadian population for all subsequent years to estimate the number of expected deaths. Avoided cancer deaths were estimated as the difference between the observed and expected number of cancer deaths for each year. Since 1988, there have been 372,584 (SMR=0.77) and 120,045 (SMR=0.90) avoided cancer deaths in males and females, respectively (492,629 total). There have been nearly half a million cancer deaths avoided in Canada since the overall cancer mortality rate peaked. This demonstrates the exceptional progress made in modern cancer control in Canada.

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© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press.