Breast screening is the regular examination of a woman's breasts to find breast cancer early.  A breast X-Ray (mammogram) is the best screening tool.

Breast Screening Saves Lives! Between 1989 and 2005, Breast Cancer mortality rates in Ontario women aged 50–69 decreased by 35% due to improved cancer treatments and increased participation in breast screening.

Regular breast screening can find cancer when it is small, which means:

• There is a better chance of treating the cancer successfully.
• It is less likely to spread.
• There may be more treatment options.
• Finding cancer early is important. Breast screening and better treatments are helping to reduce deaths from cancer.

Mammography is still the gold standard for most women, even though there have been advances in screening technology. Ontario women can receive a screening mammogram in one of two ways: through Ontario’s organized provincial screening program the Ontario Breast Cancer Screening Program (OBSP) or through stand-alone OHIP funded clinics.

OBSP offers important advantages for women and their physicians, including recruitment, recall and follow-up and ongoing quality assurance. All OBSP sites are accredited with the Canadian Association of Radiologists Mammography Accreditation Program. Some OBSP screening sites are affiliated with breast assessment services, allowing timely, coordinated assessment of women with abnormal mammograms.

Ontario’s target is to have 70% of women aged 50-69 participate in regular screening by the year 2010, and 90% of women in this age group by the year 2020. Currently 66% of women aged 50 to 69 participate in regular screening through OBSP or other screening clinics.

To raise screening rates, Cancer Care Ontario, together with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and other partners, will more aggressively promote screening, use information technology and other supports to assist primary care practitioners with screening, and increase efforts to reach under-screened populations including new Canadians, people living in poverty, people without a family physician and Aboriginals.

The existence of an organized screening program can result in earlier detection of cancer and, as a result, better health outcomes. Cancer Care Ontario aims to increase the proportion of women who undergo breast cancer screening in the province, with a goal to reach more vulnerable populations, through supporting local and regional innovative approaches to screening.