Too many women still unaware of breast cancer screening programme

5.19.33pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 9th Aug 2006

Vincent Cable, MP is supporting the UK's leading breast cancer charity, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer urging all women aged 50 - 70 in Twickenham to attend their breast-screening appointments when invited and, if aged 70 or over, to phone or write to their local breast screening unit to make an appointment. He expressed serious concern that the local health service had badly missed its target. Only 66% of women in the borough in the 50 to 70 age group are being screened, as against a target of 80%.

Breast cancer is now the UK's most common cancer. Over 41,000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year in the UK, making it one of the highest incidences in the world. Early detection and diagnosis are vital to improve a woman's chances of surviving breast cancer and screening is one of the most effective ways of ensuring this.

Since screening was introduced in the UK in 1998 the programme has screened more than 14 million women and has detected over 80,000 cancers. If it wasn't for screening, many of these cancers may not have been detected until at a much later stage.

Vincent Cable said that: "this screening programme, with early diagnosis, saves 1400 lives a year in England. But it is worrying that locally we do not even reach the 70% minimum level of screening let alone the target of 80%. One in three local women is missing a single test which could save their lives. I did persuade the local health authorities to switch its screening from a portacabin in a supermarket car park on the edge of the borough to Teddington hospital but the take up is still unsatisfactory. Despite the fact that we have an educated population, the message isn't getting through".

"I feel very strongly about this issue since my first wife, Olympia, died of this disease. The NHS has an excellent screening service which is one of the best in the world. But for whatever reason large numbers are missing out".