Ontario has announced it will lower the eligibility age for routine mammograms from age 50 to 40 beginning next fall in a bid to detect and treat breast cancer at an earlier stage.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the upcoming expansion means an additional 130,000 mammograms will be completed in the province annually.
“Nearly 12,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year,” Ms. Jones said in an Oct. 30 press release, adding the government is expanding the Ontario Breast Screening Program (OBSP) “to connect more than 305,000 additional people to the services they need to ensure timely diagnosis and access to treatment as early as possible.”
The government says sites that offer breast cancer screening will hire new staff and work with the Ministry of Health over the coming months to develop a public reporting system so patients can view wait times province-wide.
The upcoming change also means that eligible Ontarians between the ages of 40 and 74 who don’t have a family doctor can self-refer for a mammogram every two years through any (OBSP) site.
Breast cancer patient Sherry Wilcox, who developed the breast cancer in her 40s, said the move will make a major difference.
“As a breast cancer patient in my 40’s, I have seen firsthand the many negative effects of this disease and I am so grateful that, with this announcement, other women may not have to endure the pain of a later diagnosis as I have,” Ms. Wilcox said in a statement. “Research shows that early detection of breast cancer results in less aggressive therapy and reduced mortality rates—this announcement will save lives.”
Women’s College Hospital president and CEO Heather McPherson described breast cancer as the most common cancer among women in Canada. She said that while the health-care system has “made great strides” in increasing survival rates through regular screening, lowering the self-referral age to 40 will play a “critical role” in further increasing breast cancer survivorship in Ontario.
The Canadian Cancer Society’s most recent stats show that roughly one in eight Canadian women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime and one in 34 will die from it. It is considered the second leading cause of death from cancer in Canadian women.
Those under the age of 40 may be able to request a mammogram or breast MRI, but only if they meet certain criteria.
Currently, people between the ages of 30 and 69 can get regular mammograms and breast MRIs if they are considered high-risk, according to Cancer Care Ontario. High-risk individuals are typically those who carry genes that increase breast cancer risk or those who have a family history of breast cancer.
