The government should be including women between the ages of 45-74 in breast cancer screening programmes.
In September the European Commission published a new approach on breast cancer detection that they call ‘screening more and screening better’ under the EU Cancer Screening Scheme.
A key part of this new approach is to extend the target group for breast cancer screening to include women between 45 and 74 years of age.
The HSE BreastCheck national breast screening programme is currently offered to women between the ages of 50 and 69. Those aged below 50 and above 69 are not offered screening under the programme.
In Ireland:
· One in nine women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime.
· 23% of women are diagnosed between the ages of 20-50 years.
· 36% of women are diagnosed over the age of 70 years.
Gino Kenny, the TD for Dublin Mid-West said: “I asked the government today if they will consider including women between the age of 45-74 in the breast cancer screening programme so that Ireland can be in line with the recommendations of the EU Commission on cancer screening.
Currently, 23% of women are diagnosed with cancer between the age of 25-50, and 36% of women diagnosed with breast cancer are over the age of 70. Including these age groups for screening is an important step in increasing our detection rates of cancers.”
