Cancer cases in B.C. are forecast to increase by 57 per cent by 2030 due to the province's aging and growing population, according to a new study published in the B.C. Medical Journal.

The report by researchers at the B.C. Cancer Agency and others said B.C. needs a provincial strategy to deal with the rapid rise expected from 2012 to 2030.

Dr. Andy Coldman, one of the authors of the report, says the aging of the boomer population is one of the main reasons behind the projected increase.

"The increase is not driven by increases in the risk that any individual will get cancer, but primarily by the number of people that we will have in our population," he said.

Coldman said the province needs to plan for the increase, in particular the growing demand for cancer-specific services of radiation treatment and chemotherapy.

Uterine cancer cases will increase, says report

The report forecasts that lung cancer will continue to be the most common cause of death in the province, but that cases of melanoma, thyroid cancer and uterine cancer in women will increase over the next 15 years.

Overall, however, the general types of cancers and their distributions will remain the same, says Ryan Woods, B.C. Cancer Registry scientific director and co-author of the report.

"Generally speaking what we're expecting is what we have today. It's just that sheer numbers are going to be significantly higher," he said.

"We are going to have to meet this demand we are going to have to plan for it."