Ontario Cancer Profiles – Frequently Asked Questions

Sub-regions are the names of the geographic areas in Ontario Cancer Profiles that align with the former Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) geographic areas. To learn about the changes to the LHINs in Ontario, visit the Ministry of Health’s website.

These differences reflect the availability of data according to changes in the number and names of health units due to amalgamation over the years. For example, information about active transportation was collected in the Canadian Community Health Survey when there were 36 health units in Ontario compared with alcohol consumption information, which was collected when there were 35 health units in Ontario.

You can view the dashboards on any modern mobile device because they use a responsive design. However, not all dashboard features will be available on a mobile device. Features that may not be readily available include the ability to:

• customize the map legend
• access the pop-out
• download dashboard content
• view numbers that are too long (denoted with a “...”)

Access to some features will depend on your device’s settings (for example, desktop versus mobile view).

The cancer incidence projections are derived using age-period-cohort regression statistical models.

The statistical models use historical data on cancer incidence (from 1981 to 2018), combined with historical and future estimates of the population for Ontario and its sub-regions. These models consider 3 time- varying elements:

• age distribution (such as the effects of an aging population)
• changes related to factors over a specific period that affect people of different ages (such as the increased availability and use of advanced diagnostic imaging in the 1990s)
• phenomena that affect a birth cohort (such as the effects of different tobacco smoking use among baby boomers compared with Generation X)

Accordingly, these statistical models are called age-period-cohort regression models.

For each combination of cancer type, sub-region and male and female sex, an optimal statistical model (using model fit statistics) was chosen based on a combination of age, period and/or cohort variables. For more information on how these projections were calculated and which variables are included for each cancer type, sub-region and sex , please see the Cancer Projections Data Tables on the Ontario Cancer Profiles page.

The Indicator Selection drop-down menus may reset when you change the indicator selections because different data are available for different indicators. For example, in the Cancer Incidence dashboard, if you select bladder cancer in Males and Females for ages 70 to 79, but then change your selection to cervix cancer, the other options in the drop-down menu cannot be maintained because data on cervix cancer apply only to females. In this example, the new cancer selection will reset the age selection to Females of all ages.

Ontario Cancer Profiles provides relative survival ratios, which are calculated as the ratio of the observed survival proportion in the cancer population of interest to the expected survival proportion of people in the general population of similar age and sex over the same period . A relative survival ratio of 100% implies that survival among those with cancer is very similar to survival in the general population.

In some instances, there are few or no deaths observed among people with cancer in the selected period , resulting in an observed survival proportion of 100%. When this proportion is divided by an equal or lower expected survival proportion derived from Ontario life tables to calculate the relative survival ratio, the result is a 5-year relative survival ratio that is greater than or equal to 100%. These estimates are automatically adjusted to a maximum of 100% with a standard error of zero. This situation typically occurs for higher survival cancers and among younger age groups (for example, testicular cancer).

Childhood cancers are unique and are classified according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer. The Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) uses data extracted from the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Networked Information System, which is the most reliable source of cancer incidence and mortality statistics for the 0 to 14 age group. For more information visit the POGO website.

The new colorectal cancer screening participation indicator is the inverse of the previous “overdue for screening” indicator (1-overdue indicator). This change was made to align the indicator with similar participation indicators from the other 2 cancer screening programs.

The new participation indicator represents how many people are up to date with any colorectal test (FIT, colonoscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy) for any indication because those who have received a colorectal test such as colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy for reasons other than screening (such as diagnosis or surveillance ) are nevertheless up to date with screening.

Data for the indicators in the Cancer Risk Factors dashboard come from the Canadian Community Health Survey. The indicators present inconsistent years of data due to differences in data availability. Not all content modules are selected for every survey cycle. Also, we combined data from multiple survey years to increase the sample to a size acceptable for release by geographic regions and by sex without introducing a high degree of sampling variability. The years of data presented for each indicator were the most recent consecutive years of data available at the time of analysis.