BREAST SCREENING (Hansard, 16 January 1995)

§ Baroness Cumberlege

The National Health Service breast screening programme is achieving good results in terms of screening coverage and of cancers detected. The Public Accounts Committee has praised the programme and singled it out as an example on which any future health screening programmes should be modelled. The programme is achieving targets set for it in terms of women taking up screening appointments and numbers of cancers detected.

One of the main strengths of the programme lies in its robust quality assurance systems, which have identified a higher than expected rate of breast cancers being detected in the interval between screening appointments. In order to enhance further the sensitivity 33WA of breast screening and to ensure that we detect more cancers at an early stage, the Department of Health is taking action to:

require two views to be taken of each breast for all women being screened for the first time in the future. Research evidence produced from within the NHS breast screening programme shows that this will increase the number of cancers detected;

require screening centres to increase the optical density (contrast) of mammograms. Research from within the screening programme has shown that when pictures of the breast are darker, small cancers can be detected more easily; and

ensure the provision of focused clinical update training for radiologists to improve further the detection of particular types of cancers which are proving most difficult to see on mammograms.

An Executive Letter setting out this action in more detail will be sent to health authorities within the next few weeks.