Pensioners miss out on routine mammograms

Hundreds of pensioners with breast cancer have missed out on subsidised screening, with the Government blaming Covid-19 for delays in expanding the scheme to older women.

An estimated 3300 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, 350 of whom will be aged between 70 and 74 years old.

But plans to extend the national breast-screening scheme, which provides free mammograms every two years for women aged 45 to 69, were scuppered by Covid-19.

‘‘Those women are looking after their grandchildren; they are supporting their families and wha¯ nau. I think we are taking a very short-sighted view. They must believe those lives are worth saving,’’ Breast Cancer Foundation chief executive Evangelia Henderson said.

‘‘I understand it’s been a tough year, but we want this to be brought back to the table and put back on the agenda because women at the age of 70 still have a very long life ahead of them.’’

The foundation petitioned Parliament to extend the programme to older woman in 2016 and the Government committed to extending the age of eligibility in 2017.

However, speaking in Parliament in May, then-health minister David Clark said it could no longer afford expansion in Budget 2020 because of the extra costs of Covid-19. ‘‘Extending the age for breast screening will be revisited as conditions allow.’’

Henderson said increasing the age range would only mean an extra two screenings per woman.

‘‘Now they are saying they don’t have enough capacity in their screening unit to cover this extra population. They don’t have enough mammogram machines or staff to cope . . . But the earlier you get it, the cheaper it is to treat and the better the outcome.’’

Pat Mravicich’s breast cancer was caught nearly a year ago after she paid for her own mammogram. The 73-year-old from Auckland had a six-centimetre tumour and four lymph nodes removed. A double mastectomy followed.

But many women weren’t aware they were still at risk of breast cancer in their 70s, 80s and 90s, she said.

Her daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago and had a double mastectomy, so Mravicich was ‘‘cautious’’ and made sure she got checked even when she was no longer eligible for free mammograms.

‘‘I live in a retirement village and when I was diagnosed a number of women of all ages went to be checked out and five had to have surgery of some type. It [the risk of breast cancer] just doesn’t stop at 69.’’

Despite the Government commitment to expanding the age range, the Ministry of Health said the evidence for screening 70- to 74-year-olds wasn’t as strong as the evidence for screening 45- to 69-year-olds, and mammograms were not free of harm.

Breast screening might diagnose some slow-growing cancers that may never have been harmful, while mammograms can give false positive and false negative results, radiation exposure, discomfort and anxiety.

‘‘Women of any age who have breast cancer symptoms, or who are considered at increased risk of breast cancer, are eligible for publicly funded mammograms following a referral from their GP to the DHB,’’ the ministry said.

‘‘All women in New Zealand who are eligible for publicly funded healthcare will be offered publicly funded treatment if they are diagnosed with breast cancer.’’

‘‘We are taking a very short-sighted view.’’ Evangelia Henderson

Breast Cancer Foundation