Warning to women as more than a million missing out on life-saving health checks
THOUSANDS of women are being urged to get their breasts screened.
The NHS today called on all eligible women to come forward for the vital test after it emerged nearly four in 10 did not take up the offer last year.
Around 1.97million — the highest number on record — were screened last year within six months of an invitation.
Around 1.2million did not get a screening — the second lowest uptake in the last decade.
NHS director of vaccinations and screening Steve Russell said: “Screening is an effective way to detect cancers at an earlier stage.
“It is in part thanks to our national breast screening programme that survival rates for breast cancer are so high.
“Today’s figures show more than 20,000 women were diagnosed and able to get treatment because they attended breast screening check-ups last year.
“Yet nearly four in ten women aren’t taking up their screening invite and booking an appointment.”
He said the health service is sending out more breast screening invitations than ever before in an effort to save even more lives.
Mr Russel said: “We want more women to take up their screening offer when invited, so please if you have been invited.
“Book an appointment at your local screening service or mobile unit as soon as possible.”
Around 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK.
Symptoms include a lump in the breast or armpit, thickening or swelling in the breast or irritation around the nipple.
The risk of developing the disease increases with age and is higher in women with a family history of it.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer
You should see a GP if you notice any of the following:
- a new lump or area of thickened tissue in either breast that was not there before
- a change in the size or shape of one or both breasts
- a discharge of fluid from either of your nipples
- a lump or swelling in either of your armpits
- a change in the look or feel of your skin, such as puckering or dimpling, a rash or redness
- a rash (like eczema), crusting, scaly or itchy skin or redness on or around your nipple
- a change in the appearance of your nipple, such as becoming sunken into your breast
Breast pain is not usually a symptom of breast cancer.
Source: The NHS
Catching the disease early with screening boosts survival rates, with surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy able to get rid of the tumour.
However, if the cancer has already spread to other parts of the body — known as secondary breast cancer — there is no cure, although people can survive for years with treatment.
New national figures on cancer survival in England show that 91 per cent of women diagnosed at an early stage of breast cancer, where the tumour is small, have a survival rate of at least five years.
The five-year survival rate for diagnosis at a late stage, where the cancer has spread to other parts of the body (stage 4), is 39 per cent.
Dame Cally Palmer, national cancer director for NHS England, said: “Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and the risk increases with age.
“But it also has one of the highest survival rates, thanks to advances in NHS screening and treatment.
“We know lives are saved when cancers are caught early and I would urge anyone who has received a breast screening invitation to make an appointment — it could save your life.”
Overall, a record 2.06 million women aged 50 to 70 were screened in 2021/22, which includes self-referrals as well as those invited.
In 2021/22, the NHS breast screening programme led to cancers being detected in 20,152 women across England, which otherwise may have been diagnosed at a later stage, NHS England said.
Chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, Baroness Delyth Morgan, said: “Today’s data starkly depicts the crisis surrounding the NHS breast screening programme’s performance.”
She said that while record numbers were invited to routine breast screening in 2021/22, “the frightening reality is that the proportion of women taking up their invite remains at an historic low for the second year running, meaning over one million women missed out on screening”.
She added: “Once an NHS success story, the breast screening programme is now chronically underfunded and overstretched.
“Our incredible NHS staff continue to go above and beyond to provide the best standard of care for breast cancer patients, but women will continue to be denied the best chance of timely breast cancer diagnosis and treatment until the Government shows it’s serious about fixing the screening programme.
“This means taking decisive action to remove barriers to screening, ring-fence investment, fill workforce gaps and bring the programme into the 21st century to guarantee women’s right to accessible, equitable and effective breast screening.”