Cancer prevention and care
How to prevent and get help for cancer through Ontario’s health system.
Learn about your cancer risk
Use My Cancer IQ to learn about your cancer risk and steps you can take to prevent cancer.
- Assess your personal risk of developing breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, melanoma (skin) and kidney cancer.
- Learn what factors affect your risk.
- Get your free personalized health action plan with links to trusted Canadian health resources.
Screen for cancer
Cancer screening is testing done on people who may be at risk of getting cancer, but who have no symptoms and generally feel fine. Cancer screening tests are not meant to diagnose cancer — instead, they help determine which people are more likely to have cancer or develop cancer in the future. In Ontario there are 4 free cancer screening programs.
Free cancer screening
Breast cancer
The Ontario Breast Screening Program is a province-wide screening program designed to reduce breast cancer deaths through regular screening.
Colorectal cancer
ColonCancerCheck is a province-wide screening program designed to reduce colorectal cancer deaths through regular screening.
Cervical screening
The Ontario Cervical Screening Program is a province-wide screening program designed to reduce the risk of getting or dying from cervical cancer through regular screening.
Lung cancer
The Ontario Lung Screening Program is designed to reduce lung cancer deaths through regular screening of people at high risk of getting lung cancer.
Learn about other Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) services.
Cancer screening tests
Your health care provider can recommend several tests to screen for different cancer types. Depending on what you are at risk for, your health care provider may recommend that you complete a:
- fecal immunochemical test (colon cancer)
- mammogram (breast cancer)
- Pap test (cervical cancer)
- low-dose computed tomography (CT) scan (lung cancer)
Other screening available
Your doctor may or may not suggest regular screening for other cancers, such as prostate cancer. There may be a small fee for these tests.
Diagnosis
Most cancers are diagnosed by a surgeon and a pathologist. Family doctors also play an important role in helping patients through all phases of the cancer journey.
Treatment
The course of your treatment will be determined not only by the type and stage of cancer, but also by what treatments and services you choose.
Cancer statistics
Relative to their peers (of the same age and sex in a selected year), survival rates among people with cancer in Ontario have improved over time for all cancers combined, though there is variation in survival by cancer type.
- Close to 90% or more of people with breast, prostate, thyroid, or testicular cancers, or melanoma, are living more than 5 years after diagnosis.
- Less than 25% of people with pancreatic, esophagus, lung or liver cancers are living more than 5 years after diagnosis.
- For all cancers combined, mortality rates (adjusted for age and for deaths due to cancer) in the province have decreased every year since the late 1980s.
- At the end of 2018, the number of Ontarians living with cancer diagnoses within the previous 10 years was over 410,000 — this is a nearly 30% increase from 2008.
Tips to prevent cancer
To help prevent cancer, you should:
- eat a well-balanced diet (lots of fruit and vegetables and high-fibre, lower-fat foods)
- maintain a healthy body weight
- reduce alcohol intake
- be physically active
- don’t smoke
- avoid direct sunlight and wear sunscreen when outdoors
Tell your doctor about:
- any close family members who have had cancer
- any unusual swellings or lumps
- any changes in your overall health
Your doctor can determine if you should begin screening.
Find a doctor
You can find a family doctor or nurse practitioner through the Health Care Connect program: