Who Should be Tested & When

Average risk:

• This means you are 50 to 74 years old with no first-degree relative (parent, sibling, or child) who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
• The Ontario Breast Screening Program or OBSP recommends that most people aged 50 – 74 with an average risk be screened every two years by getting a mammogram.
• A mammogram is an X-ray of the breast that can find abnormal changes in the breast, even when they may be too small to feel or see.

High risk:

• If you are age 30 to 69 and meet the eligibility criteria for the High Risk Ontario Breast Screening Program (high risk means that you have a family history of breast cancer), you must get screened every year with both mammography and an MRI.

To book a screening appointment, call 1-800-668-9304 or go to Ontario Breast Screening Program Locations. For more information about breast cancer screening, visit the Ontario Health Cancer Care Ontario website.

Find a breast screening location near you

See listing of breast screening locations in the MHCW Region

The Ontario Cervical Screening Program recommends that:

• If you are 25 or older, and have been sexually active, you should have a Pap test every 3 years.

If you have a cervix, please keep getting a Pap test every 3 years until you are at least age 70, or until a doctor or nurse practitioner says that you can stop. If you are 70 years old, and have had 3 or more normal tests in the past 10 years, you can stop getting pap tests.

To learn more about cervical screening, talk to your family doctor or visit Cancer Care Ontario’s website.

The kind of screening test you get depends on whether you are at average risk of getting colorectal cancer or at increased risk of getting colorectal cancer:

• You are at average risk if you are 50 to 74 years old with no first-degree relative (parent, brother, sister or child) who has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
• You are at increased risk if you have a family history of colorectal cancer that includes one or more first-degree relatives (parent, brother, sister or child) with the disease.

To learn more about your risk level and if you should get screened for colorectal cancer, talk to your family doctor or visit Cancer Care Ontario’s website. If you don’t have a family doctor, you can request an at-home test (called FIT kit) through Health Connect Ontario by calling 1-866-828-9213 or 1-866-797-0007.