A local doctor admits he was somewhat surprised to hear the statistic this week that one in two Canadians is expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

The statistic comes from the Canadian Cancer Society. Dr. Cornelius Woelk is Medical Director for the Boundary Trails Regional Cancer Program hub. Dr. Woelk says he suspects that number includes many of the cancers which are more benign, such as some of the skin cancers. He expects those forms of cancer will continue to rise as we increase our exposure to the sun. And, though not to belittle their importance, Dr. Woelk says many of them are very treatable.

According to Dr. Woelk, the number of cancer treatments in Southern Health continues to rise. As a result, space is at a premium at cancer treatment centres in Steinbach, Winkler/Morden and Portage. He suggests that because people are living longer these days, they are more at risk to develop cancer diseases. He adds the medical world is also getting better at diagnosing cancer. Further to that, he says people are living longer with cancer as there are more treatments available.

"Sometimes I hear patients say to me, 'there's so much money going to cancer and we're not getting anywhere, people are still dying of cancer,'" says Dr. Woelk.

(Dr. Cornelius Woelk)And though people are still dying of cancer, he says someone who may have lived six months with the disease a number of years ago, might today be living for two years. If they are living four times longer, then that would mean there are four times as many people living with that disease at any given time.

Dr. Woelk says he is seeing cancer treatments today resulting in longer survival and sometimes cure when in former years they resulted in only short remissions.

"When somebody doesn't return after many years of the cancer not coming back, we will have to assume that that's a cure, no longer a remission," suggests Dr. Woelk. "There are definitely illnesses where what we're seeing is long term survival where we didn't see it in the past."

So what can we do to try and beat the odds of being diagnosed with cancer? Dr. Woelk says the biggest factor continues to be our lifestyle. He says reducing the amount we smoke and the amount of alcohol we consume and increasing our regular exercise are probably the most important steps to prevent cancer. He adds, rather than focusing on the statistic that one in two Canadians will develop cancer, let's make sure we are living a healthy lifestyle and following up with our family physician when things seem unusual. It is also important to participate in proven cancer screening programs, like mammograms, stool testing for occult blood and PAP tests.

Similar to other regions, Dr. Woelk says the most common forms of cancer within Southern Health are breast, colon, lung and prostate cancer.