13,000 miss early breast cancer care due to failed NHS targets

MORE than 13,000 women with breast cancer are feared to have missed out on an earlier diagnosis because the NHS has repeatedly failed to hit screening targets.

Breast Cancer Now is calling for a national awareness campaign to improve screening uptake after new figures revealed the target has been missed for four years in a row.

Fewer than two in three women (64.6 per cent) took up their screening appointment in 2022/23, according to NHS England.

This is a small improvement from 62.3 per cent the previous year, but performance has fallen short of the NHS ‘minimum target’ of 70 per cent since 2019/20.

Yesterday, Breast Cancer Now called the figures a ‘cause for grave concern’ as screening is a ‘vital tool’ that enables most breast cancers to be detected early, when survival rates are almost 100 per cent.

In 2022/23, 2.98million women aged 50 to 70 were invited to breast screening, but only 1.93million had attended within six months of receiving the invitation. More than one in three women (35.4 per cent) failed to attend, rising to almost half (46.3 per cent) among those who were invited for the first time.

Screening detected cancer in 18,942 women across England in 2022/23. Without screening, the disease may not be diagnosed until a later stage, when survival rates are lower. If the 70 per cent uptake target had been met for all of the four years it was missed, Breast Cancer Now estimates that 4,889 more breast cancers would have been found. Had uptake reached 80 per cent, 13,737 additional cases may have been detected.

Dr Louise Wilkinson, a consultant radiologist and breast screening specialist, said: ‘I know life gets busy, but I would urge anyone who has received a screening invitation to put health at the top of your todo list. It could save your life.’