New Brunswick is the latest province to mandate that women be told their breast density following a mammogram, but experts say the welcome move falls short of a broader breast cancer strategy they’d like to see extended coast-to-coast.

An organization deplores that the Quebec government does not directly disclose to women important information for their health: do they have dense breasts or not? Deprived of this information, Quebec women cannot take measures to detect breast cancer in time, he believes.

What if you had a mammogram and the results did not show your cancer? That’s what happened to Annie Slight, a woman who was diagnosed at age 42 with a late diagnosis of stage 2, grade 3 breast cancer that was not detected during her routine mammogram. She told me her story and now wants to educate women about this little known factor that made all the difference for her: breast density.

It’s a frightening statistic that far too many women in Nova Scotia are aware of: One in eight will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. But now the Nova Scotia health care system is aiming to give women new and potentially life-saving information on their breast health with every mammogram report. Women in the province will now be able to learn whether they have dense breasts with the results of their mammogram as part of the Nova Scotia Breast Screening Program.

Nova Scotia has become the first province to provide breast density results to all women who undergo a mammogram, using a new technology pioneered in-house. The standardized changes are effective immediately, with the new Densitas breast density assessment software already installed in screening centres across Nova Scotia.

Information about breast density is an important part of breast cancer screening and ensuring early detection and treatment. That is why it will now be automatically included in a woman’s screening mammography report. Nova Scotia is the first province in Canada to use a software that assesses breast density and automatically shares results.