Long-awaited lung cancer screening program coming to P.E.I., says health minister
Province has hired a respirologist, bought a 2nd CT scanner for Charlottetown hospital
The province's health minister says P.E.I. is getting a lung cancer screening program, something advocates have said is urgently needed on the Island.
"We have a two-year plan to phase in the lung [cancer] screening program," Mark McLane said Friday.
"We have a respirologist joining our system in late summer, so that skill set is very important to standing up that program."
The province has also purchased a second computerized tomography (CT) scanner for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown to boost the screening program's capacity.
Prince Edward Island already operates screening programs for colorectal cancer, cervical cancer and breast cancer.
The Canadian Cancer Society has been pushing the P.E.I. government for a timeline and firm budgetary commitment to implement a program to screen for lung issues.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among both men and women in P.E.I., and the province's incidence rate is above the national average.
The issue came up in the legislative assembly on Friday, with McLane's fellow Progressive Conservative, MLA Susie Dillon, asking about a timeline for the program's implementation.
She said 70 per cent of Islanders who are diagnosed with lung cancer find out at a late stage, when treatment options are limited and the survival rates are lower. Dillon cited statistics that show the five-year survival rate for Stage 4 lung cancer is only three per cent.
Smoking cessation program effective, says McLane
McLane said the department is looking to similar programs across Canada to learn best practices. British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia have launched lung cancer screening, while New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador are currently running pilots.
The health minister also pointed to the expansion of the province's smoking cessation program into pharmacies as a prevention tool.
He said about 7,000 Islanders have signed up for that program since it started, and it has a 30 per cent success rate for getting people to quit. That's opposed to a 10 per cent success rate without the program.
With files from Stacey Janzer