Saskatchewan’s new mobile mammography unit will start screening patients in January

An upgrade is coming to Saskatchewan’s mobile breast screening services.

After being on the road for 23 years, the province’s mammography bus is retiring, making way for a new mobile mammography unit that will provide enhanced breast cancer screening services to 42 rural and northern communities.

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The new mobile screening unit, housed in a trailer, will begin service on January 5 in Estevan, staying there for its first six weeks.

Derek Miller, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s chief operating officer, said it’s “definitely an upgrade” compared to the bus, partly because the unit doing the screenings is the same as the ones used in hospitals in Saskatoon, Regina and other regions.

Deb Bulych, president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, said the earlier patients get diagnosed, the better the outcome, since there’s “way more options” for treatment during the early stages of breast cancer. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)

The new unit provides, “the same standard of care that you would get if you were in one of the urban centers,” Miller said.

According to Deb Bulych, president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, the mammography bus screens 7,800 women a year.

“A third of all screens in the province are offered on the mobile unit. Approximately 35,000 women last year were screened, a third of them on the mobile unit,” Bulych said.

The new unit is expected to have the same capacity, but Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said a second mobile mammography unit is coming to the province later in 2026, which will double the number of mobile breast cancer screenings that can be performed.

That also means the mobile units will be able to visit communities annually, according to Bulych, instead of stopping by once every two years.

Bulych said she expects about 14,000 women will be able to take advantage of the mobile screening units every year.

The importance of expanding access

Of the Saskatchewan women screened through the province’s BreastCheck program and diagnosed with cancer, 75 per cent are at an early stage of the disease.

Early detection – made possible in part by mobile screening – means, “better patient outcomes,” Bulych said, because there are more treatment options before the disease progresses.

In addition to ensuring patients have access to timely screenings, the increased capacity by having two mobile units will also help as Saskatchewan expands its breast screening eligibility in 2026.

Currently, women 45 and older can get screened, but by the end of July that will lower to 40, meaning more patients will need access to the service.

The new mammography unit was funded by the Cancer Foundation of Saskatchewan and the Kinsmen Foundation, with the organizations raising $2 million.

As part of the 2025-26 provincial government budget, the Government of Saskatchewan contributed an additional $148,000 and will fund the screening units’ ongoing operational costs.