August 31, 2023

Parminder Punia

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If routine screening had been accessible to Parminder beginning at age 40, her breast cancer could have been caught earlier, before the disease had the opportunity to spread.

Routine mammograms beginning at the age of 50 are missing early and aggressive cancers.

Breast Cancer Canada is urging Canada to follow the example set by the U.S. task force and lower the recommended age for regular screening mammograms to 40. Routine screening in women aged 40 to 49 reduces the relative risk of dying of breast cancer by 15 percent.

Parminder has heard the words “you have breast cancer,” and knows what it’s like to have her life changed forever. In August 2021, at the age of 46, Parminder felt a lump in her right breast. After weeks of exploration and tests, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Parminder’s mother had breast cancer at the age of 74 years old. Thankfully her mother’s diagnosis was caught at a very early stage.

For Parminder, her own diagnosis came as a “complete shock”.

“Unfortunately my cancer was more developed and had spread to my lymph nodes. It was a diagnosis that I never expected. It turned my world upside down,” she shares. Screening sooner means the breast cancer might be treated through removal of the tumor, not the entire breast, patients could be spared the side-effects of chemotherapy, and individuals are diagnosed before the cancer advances and invades other parts of the body.

Parminder is passionate about advocating for better breast cancer screening for women in Canada, especially those with a family history of the disease, like her daughter.

“I can’t stress the importance of routine mammograms enough,” she says. “Screening detects breast cancer in its very early stages, ahead of a lump or any other symptoms present.”

Research has shown us that when breast cancer is diagnosed at earlier stages, it’s more treatable, treatment is less complex, the side effects are less invasive, and chances recurrences are lower.

With your help, we can know more about breast cancer. And that helps us detect it earlier for patients like Parminder.

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