Yes, I think this is—
Evidence of meeting #131 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was risk.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #131 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was risk.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Yes, I think this is—
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Ms. Reynolds, I would ask you to be brief, because I'd like to ask another question and my speaking time is limited.
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Certainly.
In terms of the new information that we received of cancer incidence and mortality by ethnicity, we had never had that before, and we are able to see that within Canada.
It's raised such important questions, and we're hopeful that this committee will be able to influence research into that area, because it is so important. In particular for us, the question is whether screening makes a difference on these types of cancers, and we do not know that.
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
By the way, I salute the interpreters, who are doing an exceptional job. We are lucky to be able to speak French and be understood by the whole committee.
That said, how do you respond? I tried to ask you a question about the diverse representation among those consulted by your task force.
In addition, both at this committee and at the Standing Committee on Health, we heard criticism that you lacked expertise in diagnosing women with cancer. What you just said seems to confirm that. There was also criticism of the frequent rejection of contributions by certain experts. Other contributions were considered outdated; they were simply set aside. Many people tried to contact you to offer their expertise. That was heard at both committees. Some experts confirmed that their studies and expertise were set aside.
Please answer in 30 seconds.
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Madam Chair, I thank the member for the question. I will answer in French.
As I explained, there was cultural diversity both among the members of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care and among the patient group involved. As for expertise within our group, four experts took part in our work from start to finish. There was an oncologist, a radiation oncologist, a radiologist and a surgeon.
As I previously stated, in the summer of 2023, for one month, we allowed anyone who wanted to send us information or studies to do so. In September 2023, we shared our knowledge. Afterwards, for over two months, we were able to receive comments, references, and so on, to improve our conclusions or recommendations.
Conservative
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Thank you, Chair.
How did you pick your research subjects? Actually, let's start with how many people were part of the research study. How many subjects were there? Just a number....
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Madame Chair, I'm unsure of what the question is exactly. Is it, how did we pick the topic? This is an ongoing process, and Dr. Reynolds can speak to that. It is an open—
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
I'm sorry, but I don't have a lot of time. How did you pick the people who were involved in the study?
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
We don't do studies. We do systematic reviews of studies. We did three systematic reviews of studies—
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Yes, but how many subjects were based on that review? What was the population sample?
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Do you mean the population sample of the studies? Is that what you mean?
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
As you already know, and we know, the majority of the women in the studies we looked at were of white ethnicity, and this is something we have said in our recommendations that we have—
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Okay. Thank you.
Ninety-eight per cent of the subjects you based your research on were Caucasian. I say that because you spoke today about values and preferences. We know there are higher rates of cancer diagnosis or younger diagnoses for Black, Hispanic, Asian and indigenous women.
The U.S., in fact, recommended early screening at 40. Some researchers have recommended the age of 25 for Black women. In terms of making a recommendation for screening, how did your study take into consideration more at-risk populations?
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Thank you for this question, Madame Chair and members of Parliament.
We did look at statistics from Statistics Canada, which were provided to us and are now published, so you can access them. What you can find in this report of Canadian statistics is that actually most women who are non-white have a lower incidence of breast cancer in Canada. Some have the same, so there's no statistical difference, but most of them have a lower incidence. The ones we see who have a higher incidence are Filipina and Arab women. Black women don't have higher incidence—
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Part of the issue is access to screening. We've heard from several witnesses that many indigenous folks, for example, don't go to get screening or health care due to colonization and ongoing systemic racism within the health care system. Did your study take those historical factors into account when it made the observation that indigenous and Black women have lower rates of cancer? Was that part of your research, yes or no?
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Just to be clear, we don't do research. We use research to inform recommendations.
NDP
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
Yes, it did. The research was just published by Dr. Wilkinson, which you heard about. It showed that there is a lower incidence of cancer in most racial ethnic groups except for Filipina women, Arab women and women who identified as multi-ethnic.
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Yes, but did that research inform your recommendation to have a screening age of 50, yes or no?
Physician, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care
If we took that—
