Ontario Province announced that it will lower the age for publicly funded routine breast cancer screening from 50 to 40 years.

In a press conference on October 30, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the expansion aims to help with early detection.

For his part, Jones said in a press release that nearly 12,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, "and we know that early detection and increased access to care saves lives."

The document added: "That is why our government is taking this important step today to expand the breast screening program in Ontario to connect more than 305,000 additional people with the services they need to ensure timely diagnosis and receive treatment as soon as possible."

The ministry also said it expects about 130,000 additional mammograms to be conducted each year in Ontario.

This step follows a draft recommendation issued earlier this year by the United States Preventive Services Task Force which stated that screening in the United States should begin at age forty instead of fifty, because the evidence indicates that this procedure will have a moderate benefit in reducing mortality.

This procedure will have a moderate benefit in reducing deaths from breast cancer.

Starting from fall 2024, eligible people who are non-binary and transgender, aged between 40 and 74, will be able to request breast X-ray imaging every two years.

Currently, people aged 30 to 69 can regularly get mammograms and MRI scans if they qualify as high-risk individuals, such as those with a family history of breast cancer or people who carry certain known genes that increase the risk of breast cancer.

The Ontario Ministry of Health also said that from now until next fall, breast cancer screening services will hire new staff and work with the government to develop a public reporting system so patients can know the wait times across the province.