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New stats reveal that liver cancer is on the rise in Canada

Incidence has tripled in Canadian men and doubled in women since the 1970s

Liver cancer is bucking the declining trend in cancer rates, tripling among Canadian men and doubling among women since 1970, CBC News reports.

New statistics released by the Canadian Cancer Society show the death rate for all cancers continues to decline for everyone except women over age 70.

But liver cancer, which has a high death rate, has been increasing annually since 1970 by 3.6 per cent for men and 1.7 per cent for women, the society's figures show.

"This cancer is one of the fastest growing cancer types in Canada with regard to new cases and deaths," says the report's executive summary. "An estimated 1,550 men and 490 women will be diagnosed with liver cancer this year.

"Major risk factors for liver cancer include viral hepatitis infection (hepatitis B and C), smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity."

People in lower income brackets are at higher risk of liver cancer, the report says, and face more barriers to detection and treatment.

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"One of the problems with this disease is that it does not develop symptoms or patients aren't aware that they have the problem until the disease is very advanced, at a very large and untreatable stage," Dr. Sean Cleary, a surgical oncologist at Toronto's University Health Network, told CBC News.

The outlook for those with liver cancer is not good. Four out of five patients diagnosed with the disease die within five years.

The cancer society is encouraging health care providers to offer the vaccine for hepatitis B (there is no hep C vaccine yet) or testing to people in higher-risk groups, including immigrants from areas where hepatitis infection or liver cancer are common, CBC News said.

The report, which uses Statistics Canada and other data, says two in five Canadians will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime and one in four Canadians will die of the disease.

It's estimated that this year, 187,000 Canadians will develop cancer and 75,500 will die of it.

Lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers will account for 52 per cent of all projected new cases. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of death, more than the other three types combined, the report says.

Among men, prostate cancer is the most common, accounting for 24.5 per cent, almost double lung-cancer rates. For women, it's breast cancer, at 26.1 per cent, again almost double lung cancer rates.

The good news is that lung cancer death rates have dropped significantly in the last 20 years, helping drive down the overall cancer death rate.

Cancer largely is an equal-opportunity disease, afflicting slightly more men than women, and overwhelmingly it strikes older Canadians, with 88 per cent of those diagnosed being over 50. However, it is also the leading cause of disease-related death among children under age 15, the report says.

The overall five-year cancer survival ratio is 63 per cent, but it ranges widely for specific types, from 98 per cent for thyroid cancer to eight per cent for pancreatic cancer.

The report contained an heartening statistic that more than 800,000 Canadians who had been diagnosed in the previous 10 years were still alive as of January 2009 — roughly 2.5 per cent of the total population.

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Geographically, Yukon is expected to have the lowest rate of new cancer cases this year, 344.8 per 100,000 population, followed by British Columbia at 362 and Alberta at 371.2. Rates generally rise the further east you go, with Ontario at 402.2, Quebec at 419.9, out to Newfoundland and Labrador at 429.7.

"Geographic variations in incidence rates may be due to differences in modifiable risk factors, such as unhealthy diet, smoking, obesity and physical inactivity," the report says.

"Differences in incidence rates may also be related to different provincial or territorial programs or procedures for the diagnosis and early detection of cancer, such as approved screening programs and the availability of diagnostic services."

Data from 2012 posted by the World Cancer Research Fund showed Canada ranked ninth among 50 countries with the highest overall cancer rates in the world, with 299.1 cases per 100,000 population. Denmark topped the list at 326.1, with the United States seventh at 300.2 South Africa had the lowest cancer rate at 202.