A top official at Windsor Regional Hospital believes a move by the province to lower the age for mammogram self-referral will lead to improved screening and early detection of breast cancer in this area.
Women in their 40s can now book a mammogram in Ontario without needing a doctor's referral.
Jonathan Foster, the hospital's regional vice president of cancer services, says the importance of this move is that it opens up and encourages screening in an age group that wasn't maybe getting that messaging before.
"By doing those screenings for people who are at average risk, meaning they are not having symptoms or are at high risk from a genetics perspective, just kind of doing routine monitoring for themselves, they may catch something very early in the journey that may lead to a better outcome overall," he says.
Foster says says around 60 percent of eligible individuals within the Erie-St.Clair Local Health Integration Network—which includes Windsor-Essex, Leamington, Chatham-Kent, and Sarnia—have been completing their at-risk mamograms every two years, which is above the provincial average. But he says that also means another 40 percent are not being screened.
Foster says they have a lot of Ontario Breast Screening sites across Windsor-Essex, and people can see what the wait times are.
"There's multiple websites where this can be accessed. One is on our Windsor Regional Hospital cancer websites, but Ontario Health also has a website for Ontario breast screening where people can go and click on the link to find out what's available. You just key in your city, and it shows you all the locations on the map," he says.
Eligible people can call any Ontario Breast Screening Program location to book an appointment, and a list of sites can be found on Ontario Health's website.
The government estimates that of the one million women between the ages of 40 and 49 who can now self-refer for mammograms, about 305,000 will seek out the screening.
Foster says the age change will result in more women in this area being eligible for self-referral.
"In Windsor-Essex, ballpark, we're looking at an increase of around 1,500 individuals per year coming forward to receive a routine or average risk mamogram," he says.
The Erie-St. Clair LIHN projects a rate of 143.7 cases of breast cancer per 100,000 people in 2024, with the rate rising to 144 cases per 100,000 people by 2026.
People between the ages of 30 and 69 who qualify as high-risk, such as those with a family history of breast cancer or who carry certain genes known to increase the risk of breast cancer, can already get regular mammograms and breast MRIs.
With files from the Canadian Press
