NBHC says cancer screening levels partly explain N.B.’s high cancer rate

Statistics Canada reports that N.B. had the second-highest cancer rate in Canada in 2019 at 655 cases per 100,000 people. The most common type of cancer in N.B. in 2019 was lung and bronchus cancer, at 99.1 cases per 100,000 people, followed by prostate cancer, at 80.4 cases. Stéphane Robichaud, CEO of the New Brunswick Health Council, says N.B. tends to have screening at a level that's among the best in the country, which can lead the province to capture more than other jurisdictions. In a report card from the council, the province received an A+ for colorectal cancer screening in 2017 for adults 50 to 74 years old and for women 50 to 69 years old who received a mammogram within the last two years.