National strategy aims to improve cancer data collection

The Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer are calling for better data collection, including on race, ethnicity and end-of-life care, to improve cancer outcomes across the country. A report states other gaps in the data include risk factors to guide cancer prevention efforts, patients' experiences and social determinants of health. The groups also want patients' primary care files to be linked with lab and treatment data so care teams can access test results and documents on cancer, the leading cause of death in Canada. They say more data would allow researchers to contribute to clinical trials and administrators could better plan for resources, especially in underserved communities. The report calls on Statistics Canada and CIHI to work with provinces and territories to build and maintain a system that allows data to be analyzed for various demographics.