Abstract
In Canada, prostate cancer is the most common reportable malignancy in men. We assessed the temporal trends of prostate cancer to gain insight into the geographic incidence and mortality trends of this disease. Three independent population-based cancer registries were used to retrospectively analyze demographic data on Canadian men diagnosed with prostate cancer and men who died of prostate cancer between the years of 1992 and 2010. The incidence and mortality rates were calculated at the provincial, city, and forward sortation area (FSA) postal code levels by using population counts that were obtained from the Canadian Census of Population. The Canadian average incidence rate was 113.57 cases per 100,000 males. There has been an overall increasing trend in crude prostate cancer incidence between 1992 and 2010 with three peaks, in 1993, 2001, and 2007. However, age-adjusted incidence rates showed no significant increase over time. The national mortality rate was calculated to be 24.13 deaths per 100,000 males per year. A decrease was noted in crude and age-adjusted mortality rates between 1992 and 2010. Several provinces, cities, and FSAs had higher incidence/mortality rates than the national average. Several of the FSA postal codes with the highest incidence/mortality rates were adjacent to one another. Several Canadian regions of high incidence for prostate cancer have been identified through this study and temporal trends are consistent with those reported in the literature. These results will serve as a foundation for future studies that will seek to identify new regional risk factors and etiologic agents.