Breast cancer screening rate falls to ten-year low

Over-50s stay away amid fears of ‘false positives’

MORE than a third of women in their early 50s ignored invitations for breast screening last year, official statistics reveal.

Uptake of the English breast cancer screening programme is at its lowest level for a decade, with more than 100,000 women aged 50 to 53 failing to turn up in 2014/15.

Experts think that scepticism about the benefits of breast screening – particularly focused on overtreatment and ‘ false positive’ results – may to be blame.

Studies have estimated that routine screening programmes cut breast cancer deaths by up to 40 per cent, saving 1,300 lives a year in England. But in some women, screening may do more harm than good.

This is because catching a tumour early sometimes pushes women into having potentially harmful treatment such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy – in some cases completely unnecessarily.

If the tumour is slow-growing a woman may never realise over the course of her life that she has cancer. But if a mammogram does detect it she may be persuaded into taking unnecessary action, which in some cases includes surgery. About 4,000 women each year in the UK – three of every 200 screened – are offered treatment they do not need, according to the NHS.

Nine in 200 women are given treatment that makes a difference, and three women die despite the treatment. The remaining 185 in 200 are given the all-clear and are not treated.

There are also fears about the stress caused by false-positive results, in which women are initially wrongly told they might have breast cancer, only to be cleared upon further examination, which happens in four in five cases. Information about the risks of overtreatment was introduced in the leaflets sent with screening invitations in 2013. It says: ‘Overall, for every one woman who has her life saved from breast cancer, about three women are diagnosed with a cancer that would never have become life-threatening.’

Under the NHS breast screening programme, women usually receive their first invitation between the ages of 50 and 53. According to information published yesterday by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, in 2014/15 just 63.3 per cent of women went for screening within six months of receiving their first invitation, down from 65.8 per cent the year before and 70.1 per cent in 2004/5.

Women are then usually invited for screening every three years until they are 70. Among women aged 53 to 70, overall screening has fallen for each of the last four years.

Some 75.4 per cent of women in this age group had attended a recent screening as of March 2015, down from 75.9 per cent at the same point in 2014, and down from a peak of 77.2 per cent in 2011.

Cancer charities said confusion over the risks and benefits of screening may be behind the drop. But they also warned that middleaged women are busier than ever, working to an older age and often looking after ageing parents as well as children and grandchildren.

The Department of Health said: ‘The earlier cancer is spotted, the sooner treatment can start and the better chance of beating it.’