Speed up rollout of breast screening, urges cancer society

CANCER campaigners have called on the Government to speed up the countrywide extension of the BreastCheck breast cancer screening service and to include older women in the programme.

The Irish Cancer Society welcomed last week’s announcement of a further €20 million to bring BreastCheck to all parts of the country by 2008 but it said this was three years later than planned and urged the Government to stick to the original time frame of 2005.

The society also called for the screening age to be extended beyond the 50-64 years category to include women up to the age of 70, in recognition of the increased chances older women have of developing the disease.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said yesterday the possibility of extending the service to older age groups would be considered once the programme was fully rolled out.

Over three-quarters of women with breast cancer are over 50 and 50-64 is considered the key age group for early detection.

Dr Patricia Fitzpatrick, a public health lecturer at University College Dublin and member of the BreastCheck team, said the likelihood of getting the disease continued to increase with age.

Dr Fitzpatrick was speaking at the announcement of details for this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month which begins on October 1 and aims to increase awareness of the disease which kills close to 700 women a year here and creates almost 1,900 new patients annually.

During the month, the Irish Cancer Society’s specialist Action Breast Cancer team will be running a roadshow to bring information and advice around the country.

Information events and seminars for employers are also planned and a campaign targeted at politicians.

Action Breast Cancer project leader Abby Langtry said: “We need to see a reduction in mortality from breast cancer through increased early detection.”