§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, further to his answer of 1 November 1983, Official Report, c. 366–67, he will give details of the major programme of research to determine the value of breast screening referred to; and when it is expected that this research will be completed.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe Government are funding a large-scale programme of research at a cost of £0.7 million a year into the early diagnosis of breast cancer. Trials, 577W involving a quarter of a million women between the ages of 45 and 65, are designed to assess the practicability and efficacy of screening by mammography and clinical examination and to assess the feasibility of education in self-examination as an alternative method of early diagnosis. The trials of mammography and clinical examination are taking place in Guildford and Edinburgh; the self-examination trials in Huddersfield and Nottingham. Four centres have been established in Avon, Dundee, Oxford and Stoke-on-Trent, to provide comparative information on unscreened populations. Studies of the psychological effects of early diagnosis programmes of the radiation dose from mammography and of the costs of screening and education in self-examination are included in the research programme.
The initial stages of the trials will be completed in 1987 and preliminary results should begin to be available in 1988.