Time to lower breast-cancer screening age

Roblin

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/09/2024 (671 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One in every eight Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. If you’re reading this, it’s likely you or someone you love has been or will be touched by breast cancer.

Leading advocacy organizations, including the Canadian Cancer Society, along with physicians, medical professionals, and survivors have come together this year to advocate for a Canada-wide lowering of the breast cancer screening age to 40. But here in Manitoba, women aren’t routinely screened until the age of 50.

Incidence rates of breast cancer under the age of 50 in Canada have increased significantly in the past 34 years, with women aged 40 to 50 accounting for 17 per cent of all breast cancers diagnosed. Breast cancer in younger women tends to be found at later, more aggressive stages of the disease.

Earlier screening has been shown to reduce mortality rates and increase net survival rates after treatment. Earlier diagnosis can mean much simpler treatment plans. Catching these cases earlier saves the health-care system resources, and most importantly, it can save lives.

Over the last several months, every other province in Canada has either lowered the screening age or announced a plan to do so. Manitoba, unfortunately, is the lone holdout.

I’ve asked about this in the provincial Legislature in both question period and during the budget estimates process. The Health Minister has not given a clear or logical explanation for allowing Manitoba to fall behind the rest of Canada.

Certainly, Manitoba’s screening capacity will have to be increased. Right now, if you want a screening mammogram in Manitoba, you may be waiting as long as nine months to get one.

The provincial government should take action to expand the program, lower the age limit, and provide better service to currently underserved groups.

Mammography equipment is relatively inexpensive when it comes to health-care capital costs. As with most things in health care, the bottleneck is human resources. In my conversations with radiologists, advocates, and experts, I am told repeatedly that a big part of the solution is training more technologists to do more tests in more locations.

Lowering the breast cancer screening age to 40 is the right thing to do. Manitoba women deserve to have access to the same opportunity for early diagnosis that is available to other women across the country.

If you’d like to add your voice to this fight, stop in at my constituency office at 5606 Roblin Blvd. and sign our petition urging the provincial government to lower the breast cancer screening age to 40. You can reach me by calling our office at 205-504-0594 or sending me an email at info@kathleen-cook.ca