Cancer Awareness Month: Canada's unified plan to tackle the burden of cancer

Led by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, the national cancer strategy charts path for a unified approach to addressing cancer

TORONTO, March 25, 2025 /CNW/ - More people in Canada die from cancer than from anything else.ⁱ Cancer directly affects more than 1.5 million people in this countryⁱⁱ, and is expected to cost $37.7 billion in 2024.ⁱⁱⁱ

But Canada has a plan: the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control (the Strategy). 

Dr. Craig Earle, CEO of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC), is available for interviews to talk about how this innovative pan-Canadian approach makes the cancer system stronger for the good of all.

Dr. Earle can speak on how CPAC's investments and support have demonstrated immediate and long-term impacts in the cancer system, including tangible benefits for people across Canada. Examples include:

• Lung cancer: As many as 2,500 new cases of lung cancer cases are on track for being diagnosed every year due to new organized screening programs recently launched or being developed in all 10 provinces. These cases are people whose cancer may have previously gone undetected and untreated until it is too late.
• Cervical cancer: We are closer to eliminating cervical cancer in Canada, with CPAC working with partners to boost HPV immunization, and supporting provinces and territories in switching to HPV testing.
• Life after cancer: A new online hub, Life after cancer: Transforming the post-treatment experience, filled with tools and resources developed by partners across Canada to help with the physical, practical, mental and emotional challenges people face after cancer treatment.
• Palliative care and paramedics: In collaboration with Healthcare Excellence Canada, CPAC supported a novel approach to palliative care in which more than 7,500 paramedics were trained to provide high-quality palliative care at home. In addition to saving time, money and patient trips to the emergency department, this approach provides patients with greater comfort and quality of life.
• Cancer data strategy: Together with the Canadian Cancer Society, we worked with partners throughout the Canadian health and data systems to create a world-class cancer data strategy that will guide efforts to enhance the collection, integration and use of cancer data. Improved cancer data will enable better, more timely and more equitable decision-making and care, and provide a more complete picture of the processes and outcomes of cancer care to inform policy decisions.

About the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer

As steward of the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control (the Strategy), the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer works with provincial and territorial ministries of health and their cancer programs, First Nations, Inuit and Métis governments and organizations, health system leaders and experts, and people affected by cancer across Canada to implement the Strategy to improve cancer outcomes for all people in Canada. Learn more at partnershipagainstcancer.ca.

_____________________________

ⁱ The Daily — Deaths, 2023

ⁱⁱ New Canadian Cancer Statistics report reveals over 1.5 million people in Canada are living with or beyond cancer | Canadian Cancer Society

ⁱⁱⁱ New report released by the Canadian Cancer Society reveals that cancer costs the average patient nearly $33,000 in their lifetime | Canadian Cancer Society

SOURCE Canadian Partnership Against Cancer

Media contact: Gelek Badheytsang, Strategic Communications Lead, Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, [email protected]; 416-915-9222 x5977