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Home My WebLink AboutLakeshore Advance, 2011-04-13, Page 1616 Ulkedtere Advance • Wednesday, April 13, 2011 Cancer stats show mortality rate in province Brett Clarkson QMI Agency 'Ihe Niagara -I lamilton area has the third highest cancer mortality rate in the province, according to never - before published data obtained by 'Ihe Niagara Falls Review, The cancer death rate for each of the province's Local Health Integra- tion Networks shows that 176.31 peo- ple per 100,000 died of cancer locally in 2007, according to previously unpublished numbers from Cancer Carts Ontario's 2010 Ontario Cancer Reg- istry, It was the third highest total in the province, behind the first -place North East 1111N and second -place South East I.IIIN, Cancer Care Ontario stopped pub- lishing the mortality rates for the local health networks in 2005, said spokes- man Brett Tremblay, "This one, the 2007 one, has never been published publicly," 'Tremblay said. Tremblay said Cancer Care Ontario, the provincial agency tasked with improving cancer services across the province and advising Queen's Park, did not try to withhold the information. Instead, a "resourcing issue" com- bined with "focusing on other endeav- ours" like the 2010 Cancer in Ontario report and the annual Cancer System Quality Index prevented the agency Any ladies Interested In playing recreation league soccer this summer? fior,Am sows Owe erwafrom ktiiik Been e white a suit NM IVO 1,01101111, Si Me lata cestast wsss (II) U5.51$S w MINIvattameatmslivaltsa.ea 'MgistfMIa M Ilattimme, Atskarted r•I.Nt. l.. Sth Annual Ladies Night for Breast Cancer We would also like to thank Bert Sandwith, Jamie Sandwith, Pam Wildgon, Joanne Kadlecik and the unforgetable server Dave Maguire 519-238-6224 42 Ontario St. S., Grand Bend www.Mearestaurant.com Provincial LHINs, in order of cancer mortality rate, including some of the cities/areas in the LHIN: 11 North East: 184.94 (Timmins, Sudbury, North Bay) ® South East: 182.77 (Belleville, Kingston, Brockville) ® Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant: 176.31 (Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Burlington, Brantford) El South West: 172.73 (London, Stratford, Bruce Peninsula) ® North Simcoe Muskoka: 169.66 (Barrie, Collingwood, Midland, Bracebridge, Huntsville) ® Erie St. Clair: 168.06 (Windsor, Sarnia, Chatham) ® North West: 167.25 (Thunder Bay, Kenora, Rainy River) ® Chaznplaln: 161.69 (Ottawa, Cornwall, Petawawa) e l Waterloo Wellington:161.66 (Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Guelph) ® Central East: 152.77 (eastem'Ibronto, Oshawa, Port Hope, Peterborough) 1111 Mississauga Halton:149.81(part of Halton Region, part of Peel Region, Western `Toronto) um lbronto Central: 138.38 (the former city of Tomnto) 1M Central: 136.28 (the former city of North York, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Newmarket) Mg Central West: 124.76 (Brampton, parts of Mississauga and the former city of Etobicoke, Caledon, Dufferin County) THE BI.UEWATER-ZURICH SKATING CLUB WOULD) LIKE T()'I'HANK THE FOLLOWING L(x'AI, BUSINESSES FOR SUPPORTING OUR 2011 SKATING SHOWCASE Quarter Hour Ice Sponsorship: One Hour Ice Sponsorship: Ellison Travel Ila lay Communications Exeter Flowers Ilay Mutual Insurance ('om- Wucrth Shoes puny South Huron Auto (flavin Lavestrough (Grand Blend Chiropractic (flavin Coating Nurthlander Industries Forever Furniture Half Hour Ice Sponsorship: Andlex Dr. Julie Bargiglionc Huron Motor Products Sclah Bookstore The Jewelry Box Miller Plumbing DeLange Glass Huron Perth Ag Services Coldwell Banker MacLean's Kraft Auto McBeath Funeral Home Southwest Dust Control Sutton Realty Ray Mathonta Mac's Milk Cantin Design Build Martin Wood Designs Exeter Tire and Auto Cobble Design Smith Peat Rooting Bob Dietrich Income 'lax ('(i Farm Equipment D Grunt and Sons Ltd United Plastics Dave Moore Fuels D. Gill Construction Southwest Marine Services Wild's Everywhere Graphics Devereux Murray Law Firm (Seaforth) from publishing the data. But Trem- blay also said that while Cancer Care Ontario does not dispute the release of the data, which it confirmed is accurate, the agency does not support publishing mortality - rate numbers on their own. "Simply publishing the raw data doesn't help, in this sense, because it doesn't explain what's behind the numbers," Tremblay said. "It doesn't talk about the survival rates, it doesn't talk about prevalence or incidence or anything of that sort. It's simply, 'this is everyone in this region who hap- pened to cancer as their mortality:" The data was obtained through a SIMON DESJARDINF. CFP, CLU, RHU, CPC (Wplbl Flo rw,w Pkmm.,, Charge .4 t y. vp.aww,w, 519.238-6399 55 Ontario St. N. Grand Bend • Investment Funds • RRSP's • Insurance • Mortgages "I tales SOY Y w 3 , Ow pools a par openly." request by NDP MPP Gilles Bisson to the Ontario Legislative Library at Queen's Park and forwarded to the Niagara Falls Review. Bisson's riding of Timmins -James Bay -Bale James is part of the North East LHIN, whose cancer mortality rate of 184.94 deaths per 100,000 peo- ple is the highest in Ontario. The provincial average is 158.49 deaths per 100,000. Bisson, who has been a vocal critic of the province's Agent Orange investigation, wanted to see how cancer rates in his riding compared to the rest of the regions across the province. Cancer Care Ontario makes the data available if people request it, but does not publish the mortality rates by region, Tremblay said. "This infor- mation hasn't been hidden or with- held. It Is available," Tremblay said. "We specify on our site how to go about, how to make the data request. We publish a lot of the data with evi- dence to support it." When Tremblay was questioned as to why data sur- rounding mortality rates is only made available by request, he defended Cancer Care Ontario against possible criticism that the agency is becoming "more restricted" by picking and choosing which 'information to release. "Our information is not becoming more restricted," Tremblay said. "We are publishing more and more infor- mation. If you look at the reports we publish, more and more information has become available with the proper context. This one chart with this one format, was all that was discontinued, and we focused instead on other more meaningful charts with actual, measurable contextual data data that people could do some- thing with as opposed to simply raw numbers." In an email to the Review Friday morning, Tremblay said that the 2010 Cancer In Ontario report is the first in a series of reports to be released by Cancer Care Ontario. Further reports will likely include the all -cancer mor- tality rates by region. "This version (Cancer in Ontario 2010) focused on the burden of can- cer, incidence and prevalence, while the others will focus on specific topics and would likely include the data you are reviewing," Tremblay wrote. bclarkson@nfreview.cotn All cancers mortality age -standard- ized rates, 2007, by LAIN Source: Cancer Care Ontario (Ontario Cancer Registry, 2010) Rates are per 100,000 and adjusted to the age distribution of the 1991 Canadian population J )