Data Sources and Methods

Data for this report came from the following sources. For details, see Appendix 1: Data Sources.

• Ontario Cancer Registry
• Other provincial and territorial cancer registries
• Office of the Registrar General for Ontario
• Ontario Ministry of Finance
• Statistics Canada
• Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Networked Information System

Information on the methodology used in this report can be found in Appendix 2: Analysis.

Data Notes

• The data in this report pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the projected statistics do not account for the pandemic’s effects. More information about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ontario’s cancer system is available on the Cancer Quality Council of Ontario website.
• This report examines statistics by sex, age group, cancer type (including all cancers combined) and over time.
• Statistics by sex include female and male terms, which refer to the sex that is recorded in the Ontario Cancer Registry.
• This report focuses mainly on cancer in adults, but it also includes several statistics related to incidence, mortality and survival for selected childhood cancers (ages 0 to 14) contributed by our partner, the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario. For additional in-depth statistics on childhood cancers in Ontario, read the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Surveillance Report.
• This report includes actual (non-projected) and projected statistics, and makes distinctions between them where applicable. Statistics presented in Chapter 1 (Estimated Current Cancer Incidence), Chapter 2 (Estimated Current Cancer Mortality) and Chapter 3 (Estimated Future Cancer Prevalence) report on projected data. The statistics in the rest of the report use actual data.
• This report uses shortened forms of the names of cancer types. See Table A.5 in Appendix 1: Data Sources for the corresponding full names and definitions.
• The Ontario Cancer Registry and Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Networked Information System routinely receive new case information and updates to existing records. As a result, statistics in this report should be considered accurate only at the time of analysis.
• Use caution when comparing the statistics in this report to those in previous reports. The Ontario Cancer Registry adopted new coding rules for multiple primary cancers in 2010 that increased reported incidence for some cancers. More recently, changes were made to cancer staging, coding and case creation standards for cases diagnosed from January 1, 2018, onward. This change affected the incidence in 2018 of some cancer subtypes and resulted in a shift in stage distribution (particularly an increase in unknown stage) for certain cancer types, compared with previous years. For details, see Appendix 1: Data Sources.
• The use of the word “significant” throughout this report refers to statistical significance. See Appendix 2: Analysis for details.

Inclusions and exclusions

MALIGNANT VERSUS NON-MALIGNANT CANCERS

• Statistics included in this report almost always refer to malignant (i.e., cancerous) tumours. The exceptions are for bladder, brain and other nervous system, and selected childhood cancers.
  • Similar to other jurisdictions, Ontario Cancer Statistics reports bladder carcinoma in situ jointly with malignant bladder cases to monitor incidence due to the clinical significance of in situ bladder cancer cases. The Ontario Cancer Registry began routinely registering bladder carcinoma in situ cases in 2010. In this report, bladder carcinoma in situ cases are handled as follows:
    • Incidence: included in all analyses (see “Trends in age-standardized rates" in Appendix 2: Analysis for information on how these cases are handled in incidence trend analyses)
    • Mortality: included in all analyses, although deaths due to in situ bladder cancer are relatively rare
    • Survival: included only in analyses for 2010 or later, unless otherwise specified
    • Prevalence: excluded from all analyses
  • Statistics on the incidences of malignant and non-malignant brain and other nervous system tumours are included in this report because of the similarity of symptoms and common treatment sometimes required for these tumours. Non-malignant cases include benign and borderline tumours. Because the registry began routinely registering non-malignant brain and other nervous system tumours in 2010, incidence and survival statistics on these cases are only provided for 2010 to 2018. Also, they are excluded from all mortality analyses.
  • For childhood cancers, selected benign tumours and neoplasms of indeterminate behaviour (central nervous system and germ cell tumours) are included, as classified according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer.

CANCER SUBSITES AND HISTOLOGICAL TYPES

• Because the Ontario Cancer Registry does not collect non-melanoma skin cancer (basal and squamous cell) records, this report excludes statistics for these cases, including for statistics on all cancers combined. Non-melanoma skin cancers represent the most common type of cancer in most jurisdictions.
• Statistics on incidence, survival and prevalence are provided for all cancers combined, 23 major cancer types and for certain anatomical (topographical) subsites and histological subtypes of these cancers, which were selected based on consultation with clinical experts.
• Statistics on mortality are reported for all cancers combined and the 23 major cancer types because limited details exist about topography and histology for cancer deaths, which makes it challenging to produce mortality statistics.
• Childhood cancer statistics on incidence, mortality and survival are provided for all cancers combined. Childhood cancer incidence is also reported by cancer type. For additional in-depth statistics on childhood cancers in Ontario, read the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Surveillance Report.

Changes in This Edition

Compared with previous editions, this edition of Ontario Cancer Statistics contains the following methodological changes:

• The Jump model in the Joinpoint software was used to analyze trends in age-standardized incidence for selected cancer sites where a coding change has resulted in an artificial increase (or “jump”) in rates. The use of this model accounts for the “jump” without impacting the underlying trend. See Appendix 2: Analysis for more information.
• In addition to reporting on limited-duration prevalence counts, for the first time this report includes statistics on prevalence proportions. See Appendix 2: Analysis for more information.
• For childhood cancer mortality statistics reported by the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario, this edition focuses on the mortality of children ages 0 to 14 with cancer to allow for comparisons with other reports, whereas the childhood cancer mortality statistics reported in the previous edition by the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario included all deaths at any age among people diagnosed with cancer as children.

Citation and Referencing

Citation: The material appearing in this report may be reproduced or copied without permission; however, the following citation to indicate the source must be used:

Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario). Ontario Cancer Statistics 2022. Toronto: Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario); 2022.

ISSN 2371-0403
Key title: Ontario cancer statistics (Online)

ISBN 978-1-4868-3681-9 HTML Ontario Cancer Statistics

Disclaimers

Many of the tables and charts in this report contain information derived from the Ontario Cancer Registry and the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Networked Information System. While Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) and the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario made every effort to ensure the completeness, accuracy and currency of the information at the time of writing this report, information changes over time, as does the interpretation of it.

Please do not use this information, either alone or with other information, to identify an individual. This includes attempting to decrypt information that is encrypted, attempting to identify an individual based on encrypted information and attempting to identify an individual based on prior knowledge.

Authors and Contributors

Authors

ONTARIO HEALTH (CANCER CARE ONTARIO)

Aniq Anam, Surveillance Program
Dr. Prithwish De, Surveillance Program and Ontario Cancer Registry
Zeinab El-Masri, Surveillance Program
Bogdan Pylypenko, Ontario Cancer Registry
Amidu Raifu, Surveillance Program

PEDIATRIC ONCOLOGY GROUP OF ONTARIO

Dr. Mohammad Agha, Research and Health Analytics
Nicole Bradley, Health Analytics
Dr. Paul Gibson, Associate Medical Director
Jacqui DeBique, Communications
Bruna DiMonte, Privacy and Data Management
Dr. David Hodgson, Medical Director and Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Chair in Childhood Cancer
Dr. Felicia Leung, Health Analytics

Contributors

Thank you to the following people for their contributions to the development of this report:

ONTARIO HEALTH (CANCER CARE ONTARIO)

Ontario Cancer Registry
Phoebe Ah-Nim
Roberta Albuquerque
Arnol Alon
Hanan Atoufah
Kyaw Aung
Raluca Bardi-Pal
Julie Bonthron
Karen Hofmann
Ernest Jimenez
Mary Jane King
Katie Larson
Grace Liu
Roula Livisianos
Liza Lovell
Marianne Luettschwager
Xiao Dong Ma
Joshua Mazuryk
Ekua Morgan
Gina Naraine
Amy Parks
Toral Patel
Katharine Pearson
Grace Pontanares
Myriel Quilacio
Veronica Rivera
Lois Visneskie
Saima Yaqoob
Lishen Zhou

Other staff
Dr. Chamila Adhihetty
Dr. Anna Chiarelli
Melissa Coulson
Dr. Gail Darling
Dr. Sunit Das
Dr. Catherine Dube
Dr. Andrea Eisen
Dr. Sarah Ferguson
Bo Green
Dr. Girish Kulkarni
Dr. Rachel Kupets
Jenny Lass
Elizabeth McCammon
Bronwen McCurdy
Paul Mendes
Jessica Moffatt
Dr. Joan Murphy
Christine Naugler
Christine Neustaedter
Dr. Michael Odell
Aarani Paramalingam
Sayani Purohit
Dr. Linda Rabeneck
Stephanie Ryan-Coe
Emma Sabo
Rabia Sajwani
Ayesha Salleh
Christine Stogios
Dr. Jill Tinmouth
Brooke Verhaaff
Ying Wang
Audrey Wong
Dr. Frances Wright
Stephanie Young

PARTNERS

Dr. Jean-Michel Billette, Statistics Canada
Roberta De Angelis, Italian National Institute of Health
Dr. Silvia Rossi, Italian National Institute of Health
Justin Thielman, Public Health Ontario

PEDIATRIC ONCOLOGY GROUP OF ONTARIO

Alexandra Airhart
Mandy Sala
Sibel Yardimoglu
Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Networked Information System data managers and local teams at the 5 tertiary hospitals in Ontario with specialized childhood cancer programs:

• CHEO
• Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre
• McMaster Children’s Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences
• The Hospital for Sick Children
• Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston General Hospital Site

The Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Ontario Ministry of Health. The views expressed about the childhood cancer information featured in the report are those of the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario and do not necessarily reflect those of the Province of Ontario.

Contact Us

The Surveillance Program welcomes comments and suggestions. To provide feedback, or to be notified about future editions of this report or related information products, send us an email. To submit suggestions or questions about childhood cancer, please contact the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario by email.

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