Nova Scotia has launched a screening program for people at very high risk of developing lung cancer.
For Dr. Daria Manos, it was an announcement years in the making.
“What a momentous day,” she said during a news conference in Halifax on Friday. “We need this program. Lung cancer kills more Nova Scotians than colon, prostate and breast cancers combined.”
Manos, a radiologist and medical director of the lung screening program, said the news follows years of research, consultation, planning and advocacy.
Dr. Daria Manos of the Nova Scotia Health Lung Screening Program welcomed the announcement Friday. (Communications Nova Scotia)
The program includes clinical assessments and CT scans.
Nova Scotians aged 50 to 74 who have smoked daily for 20 years or more at any point in their lives can contact the program and have a nurse assess their personal risk of lung cancer to determine if they would benefit from screening with a chest CT scan.
People will be able to refer themselves to the program and do not need a family doctor.
Dr. Madelaine Plourde, Nova Scotia Health’s chief of thoracic surgery, said early detection of lung cancer is vital to a positive outcome. Three-year survival rates can be greater than 80 per for people diagnosed at Stage 1; the number plummets to just eight per cent when someone reaches Stage 4.
“Unfortunately, about 70 per cent of the patients we see will be found to have advanced-stage lung cancer at the time of their diagnosis. This means that they will not be offered the chance for curative treatment,” she said.
“The truth is, if you are presenting with symptoms of lung cancer, it’s already too late.”
Dr. Madelaine Plourde, the head of thoracic surgery at Dalhousie University, speaks about the importance of the new screening program. (Communications Nova Scotia)
Along with screening, the program is also focused on confronting the shame that can be associated with people who smoke and get lung cancer. There will be education about lung health and support and resources to help people quit smoking. Free nicotine replacement therapy will be provided.
“Smoking is an addiction,” said Manos. “We are here to help. It is never too late to benefit from quitting smoking.”
Education is something Kendra Slawter is pleased to see included in Friday’s announcement. The patient advocate lost four members of her family in the last decade to cancer.
Slawter said she’s hoping the new program can help spare others the pain her family has experienced. It’s important to acknowledge that people don’t always have the ability to make lifestyle changes on their own, she said.
Making these tools available, and putting a particular emphasis on marginalized communities that have experienced systemic barriers to accessing care, is an important step, said Slawter.
“My hope for the program going forward is for people to see the benefit in quitting and understand that it’s not too late and that there’s supports there to help you.”
Variety of factors drive high cancer rates
Health Minister Michelle Thompson said the time was right to launch the screening program because of the advocacy work and professional expertise that’s pushed for it for years.
“Fixing health care means we have to improve cancer screening and the care,” she said.
“Simply put, this program will help prevent and detect lung cancer earlier. It will help save lives.”
Friday’s announcement follows others in recent months aimed at improving cancer care.
The government has announced funding for new forms of therapy and treatments and a major push to expand the use of technology for more individualized treatment options that in many cases mean less invasive procedures for shorter periods of time.
It also comes at a time when updated statistics show Nova Scotia has the highest incidence rate for cancer in the country.
Eastern provinces historically have had higher rates of cancer due to factors such as aging demographics, environmental considerations and lifestyle factors such as higher rates of smoking, drinking, obesity and chronic disease than the rest of the country.
Putting an increased focus on prevention
Dr. Helmut Hollenhorst, the senior medical director of the province’s cancer care program, told CBC News in a recent interview that about 45,000 Nova Scotians today live with cancer. That number is expected to grow to 200,000 by the end of the decade as the population ages, he said.
While that can sound startling, Hollenhorst said there can be a good quality of life beyond a diagnosis with early and timely access to the right treatments and therapies. It’s also why there needs to be more focus on prevention, he said.
Hollenhorst estimates that between 30 and 50 per cent of cancers can be prevented if people avoid smoking and drinking, maintain an active lifestyle and make fruits and vegetables a regular part of their diet. People should also be mindful of environmental factors such as arsenic in water and radon gas in their home, he said.
Enhanced prevention efforts will require help from a variety of partners across the health-care system and government more broadly, said Hollenhorst. The benefit of positive health and lifestyle choices will not only reduce the risk of cancer, but also the risk of other chronic diseases, he said.
“This is something where we don’t see impact quickly. We are in for the long haul and we need to change the trajectory of health in general and primary prevention is key and it needs to be addressed to make a difference in the long term.”
Lung screening program starts in central zone
The new lung screening program is available in the province’s central health zone by calling 1-833-505-5864.
It will be rolled out across the province over the next two years. The provincial government will spend $3 million a year on the program when it is fully implemented across Nova Scotia.
The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer has contributed $350,000 to the program and is also committing nearly $1 million over the next three years to develop strategies to reach diverse and vulnerable populations.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
