Screening For BREAST CANCER

Screening tests are given when you have no cancer symptoms.
Breast screening is a method of detecting breast cancer at a very early stage.
The report Breast Cancer Screening was published in 1986, and became known as The Forrest Report. There are around 80 breast screening units across the UK, each inviting a defined population of eligible women (aged 50 to 70) through their GP practices.

At Centre for Breast Screening & Surgery, women undergo a comprehensive program of breast
screening for the early detection and possible prevention of breast cancer. This includes clinical
examination by an all female team, high resolution ultrasonography, digital mammography, and in some instances magnetic resonance imaging.In England, the budget for the breast screening
programme is now estimated to be approximately £75 million.




Future developments in the breast screening programme will include the introduction of digital
mammography. Women can ask their GP to refer them to a hospital breast clinic if they are concerned about a specific breast problem or otherwise worried about the risk of breast cancer.
However, the same techniques are used in both breast screening clinics and
hospital breast clinics for diagnosing breast cancer and many staff work in both settings.

The programme in the UK has screened more than 19 million women and has detected around
117,000 cancers. The World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that mammography screening for breast cancer reduces mortality. The IARC working group, comprising 24 experts from 11 countries, evaluated all the available evidence on breast screening and determined that there is a 35 per cent reduction in mortality from breast cancer among screened women aged 50 - 69 years old. This means that out of every 500 women screened, one life will be saved.