Lives depend on extension of screening

IT is extremely heartening to learn that the number of Irish women undertaking breast cancer screening has exceeded the targets set in the first two years of a programme aimed at moving Ireland down the European league of deaths from the disease.

Every year more than 1,500 Irish women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 650 die from it annually, making it the country’s biggest killer disease for women.

Despite major advances in the detection and treatment of breast cancer, it continues to take a frightening toll, largely because many women fail to go through the relatively simple process of carrying out a monthly breast check.