Includes BC, AB, SK, MB, NB, NS, PE, NL. ON is not included because ON excludes stage 0 from stage distribution reporting.
Data from Stage II Not Otherwise Specified and Stage Not Applicable suppressed owing to small numbers.
Data source: Provincial cancer agencies and programs.
Includes BC, AB, SK, MB, NB, NS, PE, NL. ON is not included because ON excludes stage 0 from stage distribution reporting.
Data from Stage II Not Otherwise Specified and Stage Not Applicable suppressed owing to small numbers.
Data source: Provincial cancer agencies and programs.
Figure 3.10
Distribution of cases by stage at diagnosis for ovarian cancer – 2013 diagnosis year
Includes BC, AB, SK, MB, NB, NS, PE, NL. ON is not included because ON excludes stage 0 from stage distribution reporting.
Data for Stage IB, Stage I Not Otherwise Specified, Stage II, and Stage II Not Otherwise Specified suppressed owing to small numbers.
Data source: Provincial cancer agencies and programs.
Includes BC, AB, SK, MB, NB, NS, PE, NL. ON is not included because ON excludes stage 0 from stage distribution reporting.
Data for Stage IB, Stage I Not Otherwise Specified, Stage II, and Stage II Not Otherwise Specified suppressed owing to small numbers.
Data source: Provincial cancer agencies and programs.
The percentage breakdown of incident cases by stage at diagnosis for breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer. The data include cases diagnosed in 2013 and results are reported by province.
Measured since
The 2014 Cancer System Performance Report.
Update frequency
Every two years
Why measure this?
Stage distribution is commonly used to assess the impact of screening programs on reducing late-stage incidence of disease. It can also be useful for system planning because different stages of disease have different resource and service delivery implications. However, stage distribution results should always be interpreted with caution. The main concern with stage distribution relates to types of cancers for which there can be a high rate of early detection from testing and screening, such as prostate and breast cancer. A high rate of detection for early-stage cancers could result in a lower percentage of late-stage cancers reported in the stage distribution without this necessarily indicating a lower incidence rate for late-stage cancers, which is the objective of population-based cancer screening programs.
What are the key findings?
For breast cancer, the majority (69.6%) of patients were diagnosed with Stage I or II disease in 2013. Patients were most commonly diagnosed with Stage I disease (39.9%) followed by Stage II disease (29.7%) (Figure 3.5).
For colorectal cancer, 39.2% of patients were diagnosed with Stage I or II disease, with patients most commonly diagnosed with Stage II disease (21.4%) followed by Stage I disease (17.8%) (Figure 3.6).
For non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), two-thirds (65.7%) of patients were diagnosed with Stage III or IV disease, with 47.3% being diagnosed with Stage IV disease followed by Stage III disease (18.4%) (Figure 3.7).
For small cell lung cancer (SCLC), 92.4% of patients were diagnosed with Stage III or IV disease, with 69.2% being diagnosed with Stage IV disease followed by Stage III disease (23.2%) (Figure 3.8).
For prostate cancer, the majority (70.0%) of men were diagnosed with Stage I or II disease. Men were most commonly diagnosed with Stage II disease (50.4%) followed by Stage I disease (19.6%) (Figure 3.9).
For ovarian cancer, 64.9% of patients were diagnosed with Stage III or IV disease, with patients most commonly diagnosed with Stage IIIC disease (31.1%) followed by Stage IV disease (18.6%) (Figure 3.10).
Definition: The percentage breakdown of incident cases by stage at diagnosis for breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer
Numerator: Number of stageable* incident cases in the provincial cancer registry for each stage at diagnosis (stage 0 – IV including occult, “Unknown”)
Denominator: Total number of stageable incident cases (stage 0 through to “Not Available”)
Exclusions:
Age (at diagnosis) 0 – 17
Non-melanoma skin cancer (M8050-8110 with site code C44.0 to C44.9)
Colorectal reporting for appendix C18.1
Lymphoma codes M-95 to M-98, all sarcoma codes
Data source: Provincial cancer agencies
Measurement timeframe: 2013 diagnosis year
Stratification variable: Stage at diagnosis, disease site (breast, prostate, colorectal, lung (NSCLC, SCLC), ovarian)
AB: Hematology, sarcoma and melanoma morphologies were removed from the site-specific cancers. All 2012-2013 invasive primaries are collaboratively staged and once coded there should be no cases with missing/not available stage values. Currently “Not Available” indicates the number of cases that have a missing stage at the time of data pull as the registry status was not complete and staging information is still to come. Certain skin c44 with morphologies other than basal-squamous are also not staged according to Alberta Cancer Registry (ACR) rules. For this indicator, codes 8002, 8073 and 8803 are included as NSCLC.
SK: The denominator includes incident cases for which stage is recorded as “Not Applicable” since SK does not differentiate between “Not Applicable” and “Not Available” categories.
ON: Data submitted exclude stage 0 cases and thus are not presented in the stage distribution figure. ‘Breast’ only includes female breast cancer cases.
NB: From 2008 onwards, only the four most common cancers (breast, colorectal, lung and prostate cancers) are staged.
Notes:
The group stages for cancer incident cases were classified by AJCC Cancer Staging 7th edition.
By AJCC, cancer incident cases are categorized in terms of stage as:
Stageable: including stage 0, stage I through stage IV, stage unknown
Not Applicable: Not stageable through AJCC
Not Available: Cases for which stage data is not available or invalid
Unknown: Cases for which there is insufficient information to ascertain a definitive stage
Stage 0 includes in-situ and invasive cancer cases. Stage occult for lung cancer cases are included as well.
Percentage of women (aged 50–69) who reported having had a mammogram for any reason† in the past two years, by province/territory — 2012 reporting year
Colorectal Cancer Screening
Percentage of population (aged 50–74) who reported having had a fecal test in the past two years for any reason,† by province/territory — 2012 reporting year
Capture of Stage
Percentage of incident cases for which stage data were available in provincial registries, by province, top 4 cancers and all cancers — 2012 and 2013 diagnosis years
