Extend breast screen age ‘to save 87 lives a year’

Extending breast screening to older women — a Government promise made three years ago — could save 87 lives every year, according to the Irish Cancer Society.

The society is urging women to wear pink and join them at the gates of Leinster House in Dublin later this month to demand the extension of BreastCheck to women aged 65 to 69.

The ICS has a petition for the Government calling on the minister for health, Leo Varadkar, to include the screening extension in the HSE’s National Services Plan for 2015.

Women in the 60 to 69 age group have the second-highest incidence of breast cancer and the second-highest chance of dying from it.

Currently BreastCheck screens women aged 50-64 years every two years.

ICS head of advocacy and communications Kathleen O’Meara said the breast cancer screening extension was first promised in 2011 in the Programme for Government.

“When BreastCheck is extended to women in this age group, every year 87 lives will be saved across the country,” said Ms O’Meara.

“In Cork, 21 women will be saved every year.

“If BreastCheck was extended, 43,670 women would be invited to attend for free screening each year.

“We now know that, for every 500 women screened, one cancer will be detected, which would result in 87 women’s lives being saved annually.”

Of 29 countries that have national screening programmes, 24 have extended services to women aged 65 to 69.

Women in the older age range are regularly screened in the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Norway.

The ICS is urging anyone who is aged between 65 and 69 or who has a mother, grandmother, sister, or friend in this age group to wear pink and join them at Leinster House on September 30 at 12pm.

The protest will take place ahead of the society’s new Paint it Pink Day in October, which aims to raise money for its work in relation to breast cancer that includes research, advocacy and services.

The ICS is also inviting local TDs to join them at Leinster House to show their support for the campaign.

www.cancer.ie