"Cancer is a disease of older people and as our population ages we're going to have much higher numbers of cancer," said Donna Turner, CancerCare Manitoba epidemiologist.

Turner said Manitoba reflects the national trend that shows the number of deaths from cancer and heart disease are converging -- 3,307 Manitobans died from heart disease in 2004 while 2,714 died from cancer.

"I'm afraid we'll see (the number of deaths) go up if we don't do something right now. "It's really frightening."