Cancer Care Ontario reports on Systemic Treatment Wait Times at each of the Regional Cancer Centres that offer Systemic Treatment services for each type of cancer.

We provide this information to help you and your physician decide whether it is appropriate for you to be referred to a treatment facility outside your area or Local Health Integration Network (LHIN). If it is appropriate, your physician will contact the treatment centre to determine whether you can be accommodated there and to make the necessary arrangements. You are responsible for all travel and accommodation expenses incurred, whether you receive treatment within our outside of your LHIN.

Wait Time Trend
Systemic Treatment Wait Times - Current Month

Systemic Treatment Wait Time Trend in Ontario

Between 2006 and 2007, the number of new patients receiving Systemic Treatment in Ontario grew to 13, 149 from 12,763, an increase of 3%. This rising demand has not translated into longer wait times for chemotherapy. Median wait times have remained stable since 2003 across the Ontario Regional Cancer Centres.

In the past, Cancer Care Ontario has reported Systemic Treatment Wait Times as a three month rolling median for the period "Referral to Treatment". Referral to Treatment is the waiting period from the time a hospital's Regional Cancer Centre receives a referral for a patient to receive Systemic Treatment to the time the patient receives his or her first treatment. This graph provides a snapshot of Referral to Treatment Wait Times from April 2006 to March 2009.

Systemic Treatment Wait Times – Current Month

Cancer Care Ontario reports Systemic Treatment Wait Times for the interval Referral to Consult and Consult to Treatment as the percentage of patients seen within the target of 14 days for Ontario overall, by Regional Cancer Centre and by type of cancer. Wait Times are updated monthly.

Referral to Consult: The time between a referral to a specialist to the time that specialist consults with the patient

Consult to Treatment: The time between a specialist consult with the patient and the time the patient receives his or her first chemotherapy treatment.

Provincial Wait Times: Intervals by Type of Cancer

Systemic Treatment Wait Time by Regional Cancer Centre

Referral to Consult - Percent of Patients Seen Within Target (14 days)
View RCC Referral to Consult Chart

Consult to Treatment - Percent of Patients Treated Within Target (14 days)
View RCC Consult to Treatment Chart

Systemic Treatment Wait Times by Type of Cancer

• All disease sites combined
• Breast
• Central Nervous System (e.g., brain, spinal cord)
• Gastrointestinal (e.g., colon, rectum, stomach)
• Genitourinary (e.g., bladder, prostate, testes)
• Gynaecological (e.g., uterus, ovary, cervix)
• Head and Neck (e.g., larynx, tongue)
• Haematology (e.g., leukemia, lymphoma)
• Lung
• Sarcoma (e.g., bone, soft tissue)
• Skin (e.g., melanoma, non-melanoma)
• Other (e.g., eye, thyroid)

Both the "Referral to Consult" and the "Consult to Treatment" intervals include all new patients seen or treated within that time period. All new treatment cases exclude oral antineoplastics. Data are available from April 2008 onward for Referral to Consult and April 2009 onward for Consult to Treatment.