WINNIPEG – Cancer survival rates are improving but the Canadian Cancer Society still predicts 6,500 Manitobans will be diagnosed with the disease this year.
Statistics released by the society on Wednesday suggest cancer will kill about seven Manitobans every day of the year.
The society also warned that while survival rates have improved, that’s not true for all cancers – melanoma skin cancer is one of the fastest-rising cancers in Canada.
Winnipegger Ellen Dueck spent much of her childhood outdoors on a Paraguay farm, and after she moved to Winnipeg started to use indoor tanning to even out her tan.
She was diagnosed with a cancerous mole and learned the melanoma had spread about a year after it was removed. Her children were two, four and six when she got the news.
“If only I knew, I would have taken more care,” she said. “Cancer has made me aware of how short life is and so I tell my friends and my kids – and anyone who will listen – to stay safe in the sun and stay away from tanning beds.”
RELATED: Canadian skin cancer rates not a cancer success story
Research efforts and cancer and control measures have averted more than 126,000 cancer deaths in Canada over 20 years, according to the cancer society’s figures.
In Manitoba, an average of 18 people a day will be diagnosed with cancer in 2014, the society said. The most common diagnosis will be colorectal cancer, with 930 cases, followed by 880 cases of lung cancer, 850 cases of breast cancer and 730 cases of prostate cancer.
An estimated 2,700 Manitobans will die from cancer in 2014, the society predicts. An estimated 680 will die of lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Manitoba and Canada. Colorectal cancer is predicted to kill 340 Manitobans in 2014.
An estimated 190 Manitoba women will die of breast cancer, the most common type of cancer in women in Manitoba and Canada. An estimated 180 Manitoba men will die of prostate cancer, the most common type of cancer in men in Manitoba and Canada.
There will be an estimated 191,300 new cancer cases in Canada in 2014, or one every three minutes, and 76,600 will die due to cancer, or one person every seven minutes, the statistics suggest. Approximately one out of every four Canadians will die from cancer.
Most common cancers in Manitoba:
- Colorectal 930 (new cases expected this year)
- Lung 880
- Breast 850
- Prostate 730
Most common cancers in Manitoba for men:
- Prostate 730
- Colorectal 520
- Lung 430
- Bladder 220
Most common cancers in Manitoba for women:
- Breast 850
- Lung 450
- Colorectal 410
- Body of uterus 240
Most common cancers in Canada:
- Lung 26,100 (new cases expected this year)
- Breast 24,400
- Colorectal 24,300
- Prostate 23,600
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