More than 43,000 Quebecers call for modernized breast cancer screening

A petition launched by the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation (QBCF) urging the government to modernize the province’s breast cancer screening program has surpassed 43,000 signatures, highlighting growing public support for earlier, more personalized screening.

Currently, the Quebec Breast Cancer Screening Program is only available to women aged 50 to 74. However, nearly 16 per cent of breast cancer cases in Quebec are diagnosed in women under 50, with a troubling 45 per cent increase in cases among women in their 20s.

The QBCF says the current model fails to reflect scientific, medical and social advances and is calling for screening based on individual risk rather than age alone.

“Early detection is the best solution to face this reality, and save more lives,” the Foundation said in a statement. “We know that the survival rate of a woman with cancer detected in stage 1 is 100 per cent.”

To address the gap, the QBCF recently announced the launch of the PERSPECTIVE project, a genetic risk-assessment tool that combines a saliva test with a questionnaire on established risk factors. The result is a personalized risk profile that could allow for earlier detection and potentially life-saving intervention.

“The PERSPECTIVE project has the potential to save lives,” said Karine-Iseult Ippersiel, President and CEO of the QBCF. “Those of our mothers, our sisters, our daughters. Ours. What if we modernized screening by taking into account the unique risk of each woman in order to offer equitable access to all women, based on their risk, regardless of their age? The solution to do so exists and we hope that the government will call on it quickly.”