Although the number of cancer cases diagnosed in Canada is on the rise, the incidence rate is actually falling when researchers take into account the country’s aging population.

Statistics Canada reported Friday, that there were more than 175,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in Canada in 2012. That’s an incidence rate of more than 500 cases per 100,000 people.

Although this is a 10.6 per cent increase compared with a decade earlier, the “age-standardized incidence rate” -- which controls for aging in the population -- has decreased by 4.6 per cent, from 403.1 per 100,000 people in 2002, to 384.4 per 100,000 people in 2012.

The number one risk factor for most forms of cancer is aging, and older Canadians are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than younger Canadians.

Data from the Canadian Cancer Registry show that, among all new cases cases diagnosed in 2012, 87.6 per cent were among people aged 50 or older. Another 11.2 per cent were among those aged 25 to 49, while just 1.2 per cent were among young people under 25 .

The five most commonly diagnosed cancers for men and women of all ages continued to be:

  • lung (13.9 per cent of new cases)
  • breast for women (13.2 per cent)
  • colorectal (12.4 per cent)
  • prostate (11.9 per cent)
  • bladder (4.3 per cent).

Colorectal cancer surpassed prostate to rank third among the top five from a year earlier. These five cancers, combined, accounted for more than half (55.7 per cent) of all new cancers.

In 2012, prostate cancer was the most frequently diagnosed form among men, accounting for 23.6 per cent of all new cancer diagnoses.

Among women, the most frequently diagnosed form was breast cancer, which accounted for 26.6 per cent of all new diagnoses in 2012.

The most frequently diagnosed cancers differ by age group among men were:

  • testicular cancer among men under the age of 25 (14.9 per cent)
  • colorectal cancer among those 25 to 49 years (11.9 per cent)
  • prostate cancer for men aged 50 and older (25.4 per cent)

The most frequently diagnosed cancers differ by age group among women were:

  • thyroid cancer for women under 25 (17.6 per cent)
  • breast cancer for both women aged 25 to 49 (34.7 per cent) and for women aged 50 and older (25.5 per cent).