Cancer remains the leading cause of death in Canada, with 254,800 new cancer cases and 87,400 cancer deaths in Canada in 2025. An average of 698 people in Canada would have been diagnosed with cancer, and 239 people would have died from cancer each day in 2025.

While cancer mortality rates have improved over recent decades due to advances in prevention and treatment, the future of oncology will require system redesign to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies. In November 2025, Longwoods convened a National Cancer Summit that brought together clinicians, policymakers, researchers, patient advocates, and industry leaders from across the country to examine Canada’s readiness for next generation therapies, the urgent need to accelerate patient access, and the structural reforms required to achieve equitable outcomes nationwide.

Participants acknowledged that Canada continues to lag peer countries in ensuring timely access to new cancer therapies, even as transformative technologies like Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, antibody drug conjugates, and liquid biopsies advance at unprecedented speed. These innovations offer precision and personalized cancer care, yet Canada’s drug review, reimbursement, and implementation systems were designed for an earlier era and have not been adapted to support timely access and adoption. 

Key challenges discussed and the opportunities identified at the Summit are outlined below.

1. The healthcare system is not keeping pace with the complexity of emerging cancer therapies

Canada’s health systems are struggling to keep pace with increasingly complex cancer therapies that require specialized diagnostics, skilled personnel, and modern infrastructure. Geographic disparities continue to limit access, with rural and remote patients traveling long distances for care, and many community hospitals still lacking the capacity and infrastructure to deliver complex treatments even after funding decisions are made. Workforce shortages, limited infusion capacity, inconsistencies in biomarker and genomic testing, and variability in diagnostic equipment are challenges that demonstrate innovation alone cannot translate into better outcomes without foundational system reforms. 

The opportunity: Proactive, multi stakeholder planning and coordination of health infrastructure, human resources, and diagnostic capacity should begin at the clinical trial stage, well before health technology assessment or pricing discussions. This early planning will better prepare health systems for emerging cancer treatments and support faster, more equitable patient access.

2. Strengthening clinical trial capacity as a system readiness tool and a pathway to earlier access

Clinical trials were identified as a foundation of system readiness, providing earlier access to innovative therapies, building clinician experience, and helping determine the infrastructure and workforce required to deliver new treatments. Summit participants emphasized the need to expand trials beyond major academic centres to include community based sites, both to improve equitable access to trials and to ensure community-based sites are prepared before new innovations become publicly available. Strengthening Canada’s international clinical trial presence, through increased recruitment, greater data quality, and more diverse participation, was viewed as a strategic advantage amid growing scientific uncertainty in the U.S. Expanding and promoting clinical trials in Canada also helps to establish future standards of cancer care.

The opportunity: Canada has an opportunity to position clinical trials as the foundation of a national health system readiness and access strategy, ensuring that infrastructure and workforce capacity are in place before new cancer therapies become publicly available, accelerating equitable access to innovation, and shaping the future standard of cancer care.

3. Improving data and interoperability to support better measurement and decision-making

Summit participants emphasized that high quality, interoperable data systems are essential for preparing Canada’s cancer systems for the future. Canada’s fragmented data environment continues to impede equitable access, effective planning, and overall system performance. Participants highlighted the need for stronger national and provincial governance and policy frameworks, with safety guardrails in place, to standardize electronic health records and improve interoperability across cancer centres and jurisdictions. Consistent approaches to comprehensive data collection, standardized coding, and the integration of AI to strengthen data quality and improve efficiencies in collection are also critical. Comprehensive, standardized and connected data would support innovation towards more integrated funding models that follow patients across the continuum of care and support outcomes based decision making. 

The opportunity: Canada has an opportunity to establish a pan-Canadian interoperable data ecosystem that supports realtime insights, equitable access, and coordinated, value-based decision making across the cancer care continuum. 

The outcomes of the National Cancer Summit stressed the urgent need to reimagine how cancer care is organized across Canada, by strengthening system readiness, expanding clinical trial capacity, and establishing an interoperable, comprehensive data foundation that supports equitable access to cancer care and the timely adoption of innovation. Without coordinated action at the national, provincial, and territorial levels, patients will continue to face avoidable delays and persistent inequities in care. 

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