Breast cancer screening for younger women could save 400 lives a year

BREAST CANCER screening for women in their 40s could save up to 400 lives a year without a significant increase in over-diagnosis, scientists have said.

The findings, published in the journal Lancet Oncology, are based on data from 160,000 women.

At present, the screening programme is offered to women aged 50 to 70 every three years, but those with a higher genetic risk of the disease may be screened earlier.

But the researchers believe that, based on the UK population of women in their 40s, somewhere between 300 and 400 lives would be saved every year if the screening age was lowered and there was a 70 per cent uptake.

Breast cancer screening uses an X-ray test called a mammogram to spot cancers that are too small to see or feel.

Around one in eight women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. If detected early enough, the disease can be treated and recovery chances are good.

However, at present there is some uncertainty over whether earlier screening might lead to over-diagnosis of breast cancer.

Lead researcher Professor Stephen Duffy, from Queen Mary University of London, said: “This is a very long-term follow-up of a study which confirms that screening in women under 50 can save lives.

“The benefit is seen mostly in the first 10 years, but the reduction in mortality persists in the long term at about one life saved per thousand women screened.

“We now screen more thoroughly and with better equipment than in the 1990s when most of the screening in this trial took place, so the benefits may be greater.”