§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the factors underlying the level of breast cancer in the Clitheroe area of Lancashire. [59476]
§ Mr. HuttonEast Lancashire Health Authority has undertaken an analysis of the local breast cancer epidemiology. The population of Clitheroe is not large enough to enable meaningful statistics to be collected. However Clitheroe falls within the Ribble Valley and the incidence of breast cancer in that locality as a whole is 4 per cent. higher than the area average. This is comparable to that of areas with similar socio-economic population characteristics. There is no evidence that the pattern of breast cancer in Clitheroe differs from the rest of the Ribble Valley.