New efforts
- Studies show that people who have a colonoscopy more than six months after an abnormal fecal immunochemical test (FIT) are more likely to have an advanced stage colorectal cancer diagnosis.1 To support timely follow up and early detection during COVID-19, Ontario Health:
- Developed and disseminated pandemic clinical guidance documents to Regional Cancer Programs, endoscopists and primary care providers to help them prioritize and resume colorectal cancer screening and endoscopy services
- Developed a COVID-19 Regional Monitoring and Planning Tool to help Regional Cancer Programs monitor and improve colonoscopy wait times and support prioritization for people with an abnormal FIT result or people with symptoms over people with non-urgent indications (e.g., through triage and centralized intake and bookings where available).
- Colorectal cancer screening helps detect cancer at an earlier stage when it is more likely to be cured.2 To improve screening participation for colorectal cancer, Ontario Health:
- Transitioned from the guaiac fecal occult blood test to the FIT as the recommended screening test for people at average risk of developing colon cancer in June 2019. FIT is more user-friendly, and better at detecting colon cancer and some pre-cancerous polyps (growths in the colon or rectum that can turn into cancer over time).
- Continues to help primary care providers who participate in a patient enrolment model practice identify people who are due/overdue for screening or require follow-up after an abnormal fecal test result through the Screening Activity Report. Ontario Health has also partnered with rural First Nation communities to improve their follow-up rates by issuing a Screening Activity Report to primary care providers serving these communities.
- Continues to support Regional Cancer Programs with annual campaigns to promote colorectal cancer screening by providing them with public-facing promotional materials, including a poster, postcard, social media posts and a regional news release. In March 2020 and August/September 2021, the Ontario Ministry of Health also ran a province-wide colorectal cancer screening awareness campaign.
- Provided a COVID-19 recovery toolkit with resources (e.g., key messages, social media posts, fact sheet, phone scripts for primary care providers) for primary care providers and Regional Cancer Programs to help support screening participation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The Lung Cancer Screening Pilot for People at High Risk (the pilot) was launched in June 2017 at specific hospitals in Ontario and ended in March 2021.
- On April 1, 2021, the pilot transitioned to a program and is now the Ontario Lung Screening Program (OLSP).
- The OLSP uses low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) to screen people at high risk of getting lung cancer through an organized cancer screening program. The benefit of screening with LDCT is that it reduces the chance of dying from lung cancer because it can find lung cancer at an early stage, when treatment has a better chance of working.
- The OLSP sites currently are:
- Ontario Health looks forward to adding more lung cancer screening sites across the province as part of the OLSP.
1 – Corley DA, Jensen CD, Quinn C, Doubeni CA, Zauber AG, Lee JK, et al. Association Between Time to Colonoscopy After a Positive Fecal Test and Risk of Colorectal Cancer Stage at Diagosis. JAMA. 2017; 317(16): 1631-1641
2 – Cancer Care Ontario. Ontario Cancer Statistics 2018 Report. Toronto, ON: Cancer Care Ontario; 2018
