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THESE ARE DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS. FINAL GUIDELINE AND RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE RELEASED AT A LATER DATE.

If you have symptoms like a breast lump, these recommendations do not apply to you. Please talk to a healthcare provider.

Breast cancer screening – Draft recommendations

The facts about breast cancer screening may be surprising. There are both benefits and harms of breast cancer screening.

Breast cancer screening is a personal choice.

We want to give you the information you need to make the decision that’s right for you.

The draft recommendations and decision-making tools were open for public comment until August 30, 2024. Please note, the public comment survey is now closed.

The Task Force would like to thank everyone who submitted comments on the draft recommendations and decision-making tools. We will include a summary of all feedback and how it was addressed in the final guideline. As some stakeholders will be interested in commenting on the modelling report, we will reopen with a survey asking for feedback once the report is available. The modelling data used for the draft recommendations is available in the draft report: https://canadiantaskforce.ca/breast-cancer-update-draft-recommendations/. The full modelling report will be based on updates to the OncoSim model that occurred after the draft recommendations were released on May 30, 2024. Revised estimates from this modelling exercise will be considered in the final guideline.

What is screening?

Checking for a disease when there are no symptoms

Screening is not

A diagnostic test used when there are symptoms, like a breast lump

Who are the recommendations for?

Women (people assigned female at birth) aged 40 and over at average or moderately increased risk**.
They are not for those with a personal or extensive family history of breast cancer or genetic mutations that would increase breast cancer risk

Other populations

The recommendations do not apply to the following groups and women should talk to a health care provider if they:
- have a potential symptom, like a lump
- feel they may be at high risk
- are under 40
- are transgender women

Key recommendation

We recommend that women aged 40 to 74 get the information about benefits and harms of breast cancer screening to make the decision that’s right for them. This should include how age, family history, race and ethnicity, and breast density (if known) may impact benefits and harms of screening.

Read the specific recommendations here.

Talk to your health care provider about what’s right for you or use our tools to get informed.

Discussion tools

If a woman aged 40-74 is given this information and wants to be screened, they should be offered mammography screening every 2-3 years.

“We all want to find ways to reduce the burden of this disease and improve outcomes. People may find that information about breast cancer screening is surprising – there are potential benefits to screening, but there are also harms. We want women to have all the information they need to make the decision that’s right for them.”
Dr. Guylène Thériault, a family physician, teacher of evidence-based medicine and chair of the Task Force and breast cancer working group.

The evidence

These recommendations are based on a comprehensive evidence review of more than 165 studies, including recent observational studies, randomized controlled trials, mathematical modelling, data from Statistics Canada and other sources to ensure the Task Force had the most recent evidence for the draft recommendations.

The guideline working group included four breast cancer content experts (a medical oncologist, a radiation oncologist, a surgical oncologist, a radiologist), three patient partners, as well as family physicians, nurse practitioners, evidence review teams and other experts.

**Moderately increased risk: People with dense breast category C or D or moderate family history (no more than one first degree or two second degree relatives diagnosed after 50). Learn more.