About All.Can Canada

Vision: Everyone in Canada can enter a seamless healthcare system, obtain a swift, accurate, and appropriately delivered cancer diagnosis and achieve outcomes that matter most to them.

Mission: Led by patient groups and people with lived experiences of cancer, All.Can Canada is a national, multi-stakeholder network for cancer care efficiency, with a preliminary aim of optimizing people’s entry into cancer care through swift, accurate, and appropriately delivered diagnosis.

Principles: Collaborative, Patient-Led, Prevention-Oriented, Evidence-Based, Equitable, Inclusive

The Secretariat of All.Can Canada is Save Your Skin Foundation (SYSF), a national patient-led not-for-profit group.

Cancer Care in Canada

Two in every five Canadians are expected to develop some type of cancer during their lifetime, with one in four expected to die from their disease.1

The economic burden of cancer care on all payers in Canada is substantial. The cost of cancer care in Canada has risen steadily from $2.9 billion in 2005 to $7.5 billion in 2012, mostly owing to the increase in costs of hospital-based care.2 With the growing burden of cancer, and the resultant financial pressures on our healthcare systems, there is an urgent need to improve efficiencies and reduce waste in cancer care in Canada. Improving efficiency is not a question of linear cost-cutting, but of finding ways to allocate resources more efficiently to achieve better health outcomes for patients.

Although some areas of healthcare in Canada are publicly funded in whole or in part, cancer patients – particularly those in rural areas and/or with limited access to financial resources – often experience high out-of-pocket health costs due to travel, missed work, and uninsured or underinsured drug expenditures. Alternatively, they forgo necessary treatments because they cannot afford them, with dire health consequences.

All.Can Canada is a member of the international All.Can Group, a multi-stakeholder not-for-profit organisation working to improve the efficiency of cancer care by focusing on what matters to patients.

National initiatives like All.Can Canada work to identify the needs of their specific healthcare systems and implement solutions in national cancer plans and policies.

Why Focus on Diagnosis?

Earlier diagnosis means better health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs. Delays are correlated with increased mortality. The stage of cancer at diagnosis is an important determinant of survival. Five-year survival rates are greatly improved when cancer is detected early - when treatment is most effective.3

Cancer treatment delay is a problem in health systems worldwide. Even a four week delay of cancer treatment is associated with a 6-15% increase risk of mortality across surgical, systemic treatment, and radiotherapy indications for seven cancers. Delays of up to eight weeks and 12 weeks further increase the risk of death. A surgical delay of 12 weeks for all patients with breast cancer for one year would lead to 700 excess deaths in Canada.4

In Canada, in 2022, 63% percent of new cancers were diagnosed through the investigation of symptoms as compared to 37% percent diagnosed by screening. There are also many cancers for which there are no screening programs. As a result, it is crucial to improve earlier cancer diagnoses through symptom presentation in order to save lives and reduce health system costs.5

Individuals from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds have additional difficulties accessing early diagnosis services and navigating the healthcare care system.6 Individuals with intersectional identities frequently encounter more obstacles to cancer care that negatively influence screening, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.7

All.Can Canada Activities and Milestones

• Hosted ACC's 3rd Roundtable, ‘Optimizing Equitable Cancer Diagnoses in Canada’ in Toronto, ON

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• Published post-Roundtable, “What We Heard” meeting reports, both for structurally underserved populations and for First Nation, Inuit, and Métis communities

Download Structurally Underserved Polulations Report

Download Inuit and Métis Communities Report

• Published two new Case Studies:

CASE STUDY #5: Alberta Breast Cancer Diagnostic Assessment Pathway

CASE STUDY #6: PAROLE-Onco

• Met with policy makers from Nova Scotia, Alberta, and Prince Edward Island to share research findings and recommendations

• Met with provider associations, including the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Canadian Association of Pathologists

• Met with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer

• Began research for a project on the Ocular Melanoma diagnosis trajectory

• Revised ACC’s ‘Current State of Cancer Diagnosis’ patient experience map to reflect the barriers to entering into healthcare and the harms experienced upon entry by structurally underserved and FNIM communities

• Created a cultural humility plan for all ACC members

• Presented and led workshops at:

Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology (CAPO) conference
Queen’s Cancer Research Institute
Quebec Cancer Coalition Symposium
North American Conference on Integrated Care
Family Medicine Forum
All.Can International Global Summit

• Published four Practice Case Studies:

CASE STUDY #1: Diagnostic Assessment Programs (DAP)
CASE STUDY #2: Diagnostic Assessment Programs- Electronic Pathway Solutions (DAP-EPS)
CASE STUDY #3: Oncology Nurse Navigators (ONN)
CASE STUDY #4: BC Clinical Practice Guideline Evaluation

• Met with policy makers from Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Alberta, and Prince Edward Island to share research findings and recommendations

• Met with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) to discuss our research findings

• Developed the Patient Information Framework resource.

• Developed the “When Patients Hear Cancer” Psychosocial Needs During Diagnosis infographic.

• We participated in cross-patient organizing regarding the Canada Health Transfer and bilateral agreements

• Presented and led workshops at:

Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology Conference
Canadian Healthcare Navigation Conference
Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology Conference
Family Medicine Forum
Canadian Pancreatic Conference

• Published 'Optimizing Diagnosis in Canadian Cancer Care' research findings and recommendations

• Created a 3-year Strategic Plan (2022-2024)

• Created a new organizational structure; Established an updated patient-led, multi-stakeholder Steering Committee and three working groups to support the work of the initiative:

Evidence
Stakeholder Engagement
Knowledge Mobilization

• Met with policymakers from the province of Alberta to share research findings and recommendations to improve cancer diagnosis

• Presented key research findings at

Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control Conference
Canadian Association of Nursing in Oncology Conference
Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology Conference

• Developed a methodology to assess best practices and search for new best practices, including those related to seamless care and navigation.

Download

• Hosted ACC's 2nd Roundtable to review findings from ACC's ‘Optimizing Diagnosis in Canadian Cancer Care‘ research report and gain insights from key stakeholders on opportunities to advance the recommendations in the report and move towards an improved future state in cancer diagnosis.

• Completed a 2-year mixed methods research project to assess the current state of cancer diagnosis within Canadian cancer care systems, gather nominated practices, provide insights for a preliminary quality framework.

• Presented preliminary research findings and recommendations at the North American Integrated Care Conference.

• Shared preliminary research findings with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC).

Learn more

• Distributed ACC's first Roundtable Report and final Consolidated Report on Waste and Inefficiency in Canadian Cancer Care with consensus statement to attendees and stakeholders.

• Assembled All.Can Canada's interim steering committee with representation from all stakeholder groups to support, guide and oversee the progress of a multi-year research project that was derived from the roundtable.

• Conducted a rigorous environmental scan, including literature review, patient interviews, and provider survey, to assess the current state of cancer diagnosis within Canadian cancer care systems, gather nominated practices, provide insights for a preliminary quality framework, and offer recommendations for change.

• Launched the COVID-19 Cancer Patient Support Hub, bringing together Canadian oncology patient groups, mental health expertise and health care providers to respond to immediate, emotional and practical needs of Canadian oncology patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Gathered real world data and patient-reported areas of inefficiency and waste through a national patient survey with 300+ respondents and a scan of literature on nation-wide and province specific health care reports.

• Validated and prioritized data through consultation with pharmaceutical industry partners, patient representative groups, health care professionals, health technology assessment bodies and policy makers.

• Created a 3-year Strategic Plan (2025-2027)

• Created a new organizational structure; Updated our patient-led, multi-stakeholder Steering Committee and working groups to support the work of the initiative:

Equity Learning Modules for Earlier Cancer Diagnosis
Ocular Melanoma Research
Pathways
Case Studies

Led by patient groups and those with lived cancer experience, All.Can Canada is a national network focused on improving cancer diagnosis. It aims to streamline access to timely, accurate, and appropriately delivered diagnoses. All.Can Canada engages government stakeholders, health authorities, healthcare providers, and patient organizations to share key findings and resources with the diagnosis ecosystem to improve patient outcomes.

Canadian Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-101/cancer-statistics-at-a-glance/?region=bc#ixzz5RZs2GjPG [accessed: September 2018]
Claire de Oliveira, MA, PhD*, Sharada Weir, MA, DPhil et al. The economic burden of cancer care in Canada: a population-based cost study. CMAJ. http://cmajopen.ca/content/6/1/E1.full [accessed: September 2018]
Elison L, Saint-Jacques N. Five-year cancer survival by stage at diagnosis in Canada. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2023001/article/00001-eng.htm [accessed January 2015]
Hanna, Timothy, King, Will, Thibodeau, Stephane et al. Mortality due to cancer treatment delay: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2020;371:m4087. https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4087 [accessed January 2025]
Sarma E et al. Achieving Diagnostic Excellence for Cancer: Symptom Detection as a Partner to Screening. JAMA. July 18, 2022

About All.Can Canada

Cancer Care in Canada

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Why Focus on Diagnosis?

All.Can Canada Activities and Milestones

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