Major overhaul ordered for panel that sets Canada's cancer screening guidelines

A major overhaul is expected of the national body that issues Canada's cancer screening guidelines.

The changes were ordered by the federal health minister, following an external review of the Task Force on Preventive Health Care.

The task force is an arm's-length panel set up by the federal government to publish national guidelines for family doctors, advising them on when to send their patients for routine screenings of various illnesses, including common cancers.

But the panel has been criticized for years for failing to fully take in expert advice, using outdated research and being too slow to update its guidelines. Many of the task force's recommendations are over a decade old.