Quebec breast cancer screening program is working: INSPQ

Common breast cancer searches. (Credit: cottonbro studio/pexels.com)

The Quebec breast cancer screening program (PQDCS), launched in 1998 by the Quebec Health Ministry, has resulted in lower mortality rates, according to an evaluation by the Institut national de santé publique (INSPQ).

The report, unveiled this week, says screening participation rates have increased by 16 percentage points since 1998, from 49.6 per cent in 2001 to 65.6 per cent in 2019.

Over the past ten years, breast cancer detection rates have increased, as has the early detection of cancers.

The proportion of investigations concluded by imaging examinations jumped from 67.2 per cent in 1998 to 80.9 per cent in 2019.

At the same time, the proportion of diagnostic investigations requiring surgical biopsies has fallen from 7.6 per cent of cases in 1998 to 1.2 per cent in 2019.

However, the INSPQ report suggests that while the ability to detect breast cancer has improved, this has come at the cost of an increase in false positives.

The number of participants requiring diagnostic investigations following screening mammographies has increased.

In most cases, the results were benign, but these additional examinations could generate anxiety, pain and biopsies in the women concerned, according to the report.

Since its launch in 1998, the Quebec breast cancer screening program has welcomed 1.5 million Quebec women aged 50 to 69.

Nearly six million mammograms have been performed, detecting 35,000 cases of breast cancer.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 10, 2024.