Highlights
- Letters inviting women to get screened for breast cancer have a positive effect on their screening behaviour.
- More women got screened with mammography when they received a letter inviting them to screen for breast cancer. They also screened sooner than those whose letter was delayed.
- During the first year birthday invitations were introduced, overall breast cancer screening rates for women age 50 increased significantly.
According to a recent Cancer Care Ontario evaluation, letters inviting 50-year-old women to get screened for breast cancer have a positive effect on breast screening behaviour. The evaluation found that roughly 17 percent of women got screened with a mammogram within four months of receiving an Ontario Breast Screening Program (OBSP) “birthday invitation” letter shortly after their 50th birthday, compared to almost 13 percent of women who didn’t receive a letter around their birthday. The women who received invitation letters and screened within four months also got screened sooner, with a median time of 54 days to screen, compared to 66 days for women who did not receive an invitation letter around their birthday.
During the invitation letter evaluation, women who became eligible for breast screening through the OBSP from October to December 2014 were randomly assigned to either receive an invitation letter around their 50th birthday (5,719 women) or not receive an invitation letter around their birthday (7,502 women). The screening behaviour of both groups of women was then observed over the next four months. After this four-month follow-up period, women who had not received an invitation letter around their birthday were finally sent one. From March 2014, when the OBSP first began mailing out “birthday invitation” letters to all women at average risk of breast cancer, to February 2015, 27.7 percent of all 50-year-old eligible women in Ontario were screened with mammography, which is a significant increase from the 23.0 percent who were screened during the previous 12 months, when invitation letters were not being sent.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed and the second most common cause of cancer death in women. Regular breast cancer screening can find cancer earlier when it is less likely to spread, when there is a better chance of treating the cancer successfully and more treatment options are available. The OBSP is a province-wide, organized breast screening program that provides screening to women ages 50 to 74 who are at average risk and women ages 30 to 49 who are identified as being at high risk of breast cancer. For more information about the OBSP, visit cancercareontario.ca/en/types-of-cancer/breast-cancer/screening.