Providing Dense Breast Cancer Screening -QP

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Speaker, I'd like to share the results of a diagnostic test that I got last week. Like thousands of women across this province, I got a mammogram that didn't detect cancer but did confirm that due to areas of dense tissue, there was a significant chance that it could not detect cancer if cancer were present. The report itself comes with a warning that reads: "Dense breast tissue can hide cancers on a mammogram."

Other provinces have dense breast screening to detect cancer care more often, but we do not. When will this vital cancer screening be available to women in our province?

HON. MICHELLE THOMPSON « » : Again, I thank the member for bringing this to the floor of the Legislature. We know that dense breasts is one of the high-risk factors, but it's not the only one, it's not the single one, and so we do have a high risk. We are one of two provinces in the country that have a high-risk breast screening program. The reason that information is on reports offered to women across the province is so they understand that this is one of several high-risk factors and it is important for them to understand that.

We continue to work with the Nova Scotia Breast Screening Program. This is not something we're holding back. We are working with those experts to understand what the emerging evidence says. We continue to work with them. I have faith in those individuals. We have an excellent screening program here and we will continue to have ongoing conversations with them.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: For a high-risk diagnosis, if you can be in the high-risk program here, you have to have dense breasts and family history, et cetera, et cetera. In Ontario, if you have dense breasts, you can get an ultrasound or an MRI which can, in fact, detect cancer, but women in Nova Scotia can't. We're also hearing from many women in the province who are waiting for weeks just to get a basic mammogram.

The current options for screening breast cancer are letting Nova Scotians down. The government's own website shows that women in Bridgewater are waiting 157 days for a mammogram, and in Kentville it is 145 days. When will this government make timely and accurate detection of women's cancers a priority?

MICHELLE THOMPSON « » : I just want to reassure Nova Scotians that, again, we are working very closely with the Nova Scotia Breast Screening Program, and with this ongoing discussion, I've been able to reach out to them. Nova Scotia's breast cancer detection rate meets or exceeds national targets in all age groups across our country, and Nova Scotia exceeds the national target of less than 70 per cent of breast cancers that have not spread beyond the breast at time of screening diagnosis.

Despite the member's comments, we really are doing an incredible job in Nova Scotia in terms of detection. We know that dense breasts is one risk factor, but it's not all of them. What's important is that there is a thorough screening process with a clear pathway to care. Certainly, the results . . .

THE SPEAKER « » : Order.