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    • Breast
      • Breast cancer screening
      • Screening in underserved populations
      • Breast cancer diagnosis wait time
      • Capture of stage
      • Stage distribution
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        • Breast cancer resections that are mastectomies
        • The use of breast-conserving surgery versus mastectomies for breast cancer resections
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        • Post-operative radiation therapy for stage I or II breast cancer patients
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      • Breast cancer screening outside recommended guidelines
      • Incidence and mortality rates
      • Five-year net survival by income quintile for several cancers in Canada
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      • Colorectal cancer screening
      • Geographic variation in colorectal cancer risk
      • Screening in underserved populations
      • Colorectal cancer diagnosis wait time
      • Capture of stage
      • Stage distribution
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        • Removal and examination of 12 or more lymph nodes in colon resections
        • Resection rates for stage II or III rectal cancer, stage III colon cancer and stage II or IIIA non-small cell lung cancer patients
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        • Pre-operative radiation therapy for patients with stage II or III rectal cancer
      • Post-operative chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer patients
      • Place of death
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      • Incidence and mortality rates
      • Five-year net survival by income quintile for several cancers in Canada
    • Lung
      • Capture of stage
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      • Geographic variation in lung cancer risk
      • Resection rates for stage II or IIIA Non-snmall cell lung cancer patients
      • Post-operative chemotherapy for stage II or IIIA non-small cell lung cancer patients
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      • Five-year net survival by income quintile for several cancers in Canada
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      • PSA testing
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      • Capture of stage
      • Stage distribution
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      • Radical prostatectomy: open versus laparoscopic surgery
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      • Adult clinical trial participation
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      • Cancer research investment
      • Incidence & Mortality Rates
      • Five-year net survival by income quintile for several cancers in Canada
    • Cervical
      • Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination
      • Cervical cancer screening
      • Screening in underserved populations
    • Pancreas
      • Incidence and mortality rates
    • Stage Distribution
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  • 1. Prevention
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  • Smoking prevalence
  • Smoking behaviours in current cancer patients
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  • Geographic variation in lung cancer risk
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Adult overweight and obesity
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  • Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination
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  • Geographic variation in colorectal cancer risk
  • Cervical cancer screening
  • Breast cancer screening
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  • Screening in underserved populations
  • Breast cancer diagnosis wait times
  • Colorectal cancer diagnosis wait times
  • Capture of stage
  • Stage distribution
  • Prostate risk profile
  • Surgery
  • Radiation therapy
  • Systemic therapy
  • Removal and examination of 12 or more lymph nodes in colon resections
  • Resection rates for stage II or III rectal cancer, stage III colon cancer and stage II or IIIA non-small cell lung cancer patients
  • The use of breast-conserving surgery versus mastectomies for breast cancer resections
  • Breast cancer resections that are mastectomies
  • High-risk, resource-intensive surgeries for esophageal, pancreatic, liver, lung and ovarian cancers in Canada
  • Prostate wait times for surgery
  • Radical prostatectomy: open versus laparoscopic surgery
  • Radiation therapy wait times
  • Radiation therapy utilization and capacity
  • Pre-operative radiation therapy for patients with stage II or III rectal cancer
  • Post-operative radiation therapy for patients with stage I or II breast cancer
  • Prostate wait times for radiation therapy
  • Prostate patterns of care: radiation and surgical treatment
  • Post-operative chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer patients
  • Post-operative chemotherapy for patients with stage II or IIIA non-small cell lung cancer
  • Screening for distress
  • Patient satisfaction
  • Place of death
  • Prostate access to palliative radiation
  • Adult clinical trial participation
  • Prostate clinical trials participation
  • Pediatric clinical trial participation
  • Cancer research investment
  • Prostate cancer research investment
  • Breast cancer screening outside of guidelines
  • Breast cancer mastectomies done as day surgery
  • Intensive care use in the last two weeks of life
  • Breast cancer
  • Lung cancer
  • Colorectal cancer
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  • Pancreatic cancer
  • Five-year net survival by income quintile for several cancers in Canada
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  • 3. Diagnosis
  • Breast cancer diagnosis wait time

Breast cancer diagnosis wait time

  • Charts and Tables

    Charts and Tables

    Figure 3.1

    Median and 90th percentile wait times for resolution of abnormal breast screen without tissue biopsy for asymptomatic women (aged 50–69), by jurisdiction — 2015 screening years

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    BC: Screens referred by clinical breast exam (CBE) alone cannot be determined and therefore are not excluded from the data.

    AB: Data sources are Alberta Breast Cancer Screening Database, Alberta Physician Claim data.

    SK: Tissue biopsy is defined as a list of investigation types.

    ON: Women with final result of Unknown/Lost to follow-up and those with a diagnostic resolution date greater than 6 months from abnormal screen were excluded from this measure.

    QC: Screening data in 2015 were for Jan to Sept.

    NT: All data were 2013-15 combined from the BSP database.

    Data source: Provincial breast cancer screening programs.

    Data Table

    JurisdictionMedian wait time (weeks)90th percentile wait time (weeks)Percentage within target (<= 5 weeks)
    AB0.93.495.3
    SK1.93.994.9
    ON1.64.094.7
    MB2.15.489.1
    NS3.06.480.8
    PE3.96.673.4
    NB3.76.971.8
    NT4.07.072.2
    BC3.08.080.1
    QC3.39.072.3
    NL3.011.077.0
    YT———
    NU———

    + Expand Table

    BC: Screens referred by clinical breast exam (CBE) alone cannot be determined and therefore are not excluded from the data.

    AB: Data sources are Alberta Breast Cancer Screening Database, Alberta Physician Claim data.

    SK: Tissue biopsy is defined as a list of investigation types.

    ON: Women with final result of Unknown/Lost to follow-up and those with a diagnostic resolution date greater than 6 months from abnormal screen were excluded from this measure.

    QC: Screening data in 2015 were for Jan to Sept.

    NT: All data were 2013-15 combined from the BSP database.

    Data source: Provincial breast cancer screening programs.

    Figure 3.2

    Median and 90th percentile wait times for resolution of abnormal breast screen with tissue biopsy for asymptomatic women (aged 50–69), by jurisdiction — 2015 screening years

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      Figure

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      Data Table

      • CSV
      • Excel
      • Json
      • XML

    BC: Screens referred by clinical breast exam (CBE) alone cannot be determined and therefore are not excluded from the data.

    AB: Data sources are Alberta Breast Cancer Screening Database, Alberta Physician Claim data.

    SK: Tissue biopsy is defined as a list of investigation types.

    ON: Women with final result of Unknown/Lost to follow-up and those with a diagnostic resolution date greater than 6 months from abnormal screen were excluded from this measure.

    QC: Screening data in 2015 were for January to September.

    NT: All data were 2013-2015 combined from the BSP database.

    Data source: Provincial breast cancer screening programs.

    Data Table

    JurisdictionMedian wait time (weeks)90th percentile wait time (weeks)Percentage within target (<= 5 weeks)
    AB2.97.685.0
    NT7.09.070.6
    ON3.99.980.1
    NB6.311.061.4
    NS5.111.073.3
    SK3.811.181.2
    PE7.611.142.1
    MB5.013.969.6
    BC6.014.062.6
    QC7.916.745.5
    NL7.022.055.2
    YT———
    NU———

    + Expand Table

    BC: Screens referred by clinical breast exam (CBE) alone cannot be determined and therefore are not excluded from the data.

    AB: Data sources are Alberta Breast Cancer Screening Database, Alberta Physician Claim data.

    SK: Tissue biopsy is defined as a list of investigation types.

    ON: Women with final result of Unknown/Lost to follow-up and those with a diagnostic resolution date greater than 6 months from abnormal screen were excluded from this measure.

    QC: Screening data in 2015 were for January to September.

    NT: All data were 2013-2015 combined from the BSP database.

    Data source: Provincial breast cancer screening programs.

  • Data specifications

    Data specifications

    Definition:

    1. The median and 90th percentile wait time (weeks) between an abnormal breast screen result and resolution
    2. Percentage of screens with resolution within the target wait times:
      • 5 weeks for resolution not requiring a tissue biopsy
      • 7 weeks for resolution requiring a tissue biopsy

    Rationale for measurement: The wait time from screen to resolution is an important indicator of effectiveness across the entire screening episode from index screen to final diagnosis. Longer wait times from an abnormal screen result to resolution can worsen prognosis and have negative psychological impacts on screening participants. The time from an abnormal screening result to final diagnosis is impacted by mammographic suspicion, type of diagnostic test performed, provincial and programmatic capacity, and the final diagnosis.

    Measurement timeframe:

    • All provinces: Screening year 2015
    • NT: Screening years 2013–15 combined

    Population: Total number of abnormal breast screens performed in the measurement timeframe among women aged 50 to 69 years for whom the resolution date is within 6 months of abnormal screen.

    Measure:

    1. Wait time
      Median and 90th percentile time interval (weeks) between an abnormal breast screen result and resolution, for abnormal screens with and without tissue biopsy respectively
    2. Percentage of patients with resolution within the target wait time
      Denominator: Total number of abnormal breast screens performed in the measurement timeframe among women aged 50 to 69 years for whom the resolution date is within 6 months of abnormal screen
      Numerator: The number of women with resolution within the target wait time:

      • For abnormal screens requiring a tissue biopsy: number of women who received resolution within 7 weeks of an abnormal breast screen
      • For abnormal screens not requiring a tissue biopsy: number of women who received resolution within 5 weeks of an abnormal breast screen

    Exclusion criteria:

    1. Abnormal screens that took longer than 6 months for definitive diagnosis were excluded.
    2. Screens referred by clinical breast exam (CBE) alone were excluded.
    3. Screens lost to follow-up or with missing date information were excluded.
    4. Screens without diagnostic assessment were excluded.

    Data availability: All provinces and NT

    Stratification:

    • By province
    • Tissue biopsy requirement: requiring a tissue biopsy, not requiring a tissue biopsy

    Data source: Provincial breast cancer screening programs

    Data retrieval date: July – October 2017

    Variables details: Not applicable

    Notes from jurisdictions:

    • BC: Screens referred by clinical breast exam (CBE) alone cannot be determined and therefore are not excluded from the data.
    • AB: Data Sources (Accessed on Aug 1, 2017): a. Alberta Breast Cancer Screening Database; b. Alberta Physician Claim data
    • SK: Tissue Biopsy: If the investigation type is Hook Wire Assisted Biopsy, Lumpectomy, MRI Guided Biopsy, Mammogram / Ultrasound / Biopsy, Mastectomy, Node Dissection, Biopsy, Re-excision, Stereo-tactic Core, Surgical Excision, Sentinel Node, Ultrasound Guided Core, Vacuum Assisted Biopsy and Vacuum Bx + Mammogram then it is defined as Tissue Biopsy.
    • ON: Women with Final Result of Unknown/Lost to Follow-up and those with a diagnostic resolution date greater than 6 months from abnormal screen were excluded from this measure.
    • NT: Data obtained from the BSP Database

    Methodology notes:

    1. Data were analyzed and provided by provincial breast cancer screening programs.
    2. Age refers to the age at the screen date.
    3. The date of abnormal breast screen refers to the screen date.
    4. Date of resolution is considered date of definitive diagnosis as either cancer (invasive or in situ), or benign/normal case and can depend on behaviour of tumour:
      1. For invasive or DCIS: The date of definitive diagnosis of cancer is the date of the first core or open surgical biopsy that confirms cancer. In rare occasions, FNA biopsy may also be used as a definitive diagnosis of cancer.
      2. For benign or normal case: The date of definitive diagnosis is the last benign biopsy/procedure, or last procedure prior to a recommendation to return to regular screening.
    5. Tissue biopsy includes core (needle) biopsy with or without image guidance and open (excisional) biopsy with or without image guidance.
    6. Tissue biopsy does not include fine needle aspiration (FNA).
    7. Each woman is counted once regardless of the number of mammograms performed. If a woman had multiple abnormal mammograms in a given year(s), the first abnormal test date is selected.

    Changes to definition compared to previous years: Not applicable

  • Related indicators

    Related Indicators

    Breast cancer screening

    Participation rate in breast cancer screening programs (%), by jurisdiction – 2014 screening year
    View this indicator
    Stage distribution

    Distribution of cases by stage at diagnosis for prostate cancer – 2013 diagnosis year
    View this indicator
    Breast cancer screening outside of guidelines

    Proportion of self-reported screening mammograms† performed on women within and outside the recommended target age (50-74) in the past year, jurisdictions combined‡ — 2008, 2012 and 2014 reporting years
    View this indicator
    Breast cancer

    Incidence rates for breast cancer in women, by stage at diagnosis and province, age-standardized to the 2011 Canadian population — 2015 diagnosis year
    View this indicator
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