Younger women 'ready for breast cancer screening'

NHS screening for the illness is routinely available to women aged 50-70 every three years but from 2012 this will widen to women aged 47-73.

A study published today of women in their 40s at 23 screening centres, including Hull, Bradford and Sheffield, found that around 70 per cent attended screening and four in five had at least one mammogram – similar to the uptake among over 50s.

Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research in London say the findings are important as uptake must be high to have an impact on breast cancer deaths.

The effectiveness of screening in reducing deaths from breast cancer in women over 50 is under scrutiny amid claims by some researchers it does little to save lives. There is further debate over whether the benefits on younger women outweigh the risk of over-treatment.

A separate study today finds screening saves the lives of two women for every one who receives potentially unnecessary treatment.

Some cancers grow so slowly a woman may die from another disease first, while other cancers would cause no harm.

Experts are currently unable to distinguish between these less harmful cancers and some more aggressive types, meaning they are all routinely treated.

The new research has found that for every case of overdiagnosis, two lives are saved as a result of NHS screening.

Last week, Danish experts cast doubt on the benefits, saying there were few differences in death rates between women who are screened and those who are not.

The latest research by experts from the Wolfson Institute for Preventive Medicine in London focused on data from 80,000 women from the age of 50 and looked at Sweden and England before and after the introduction of screening.

It found 5.7 deaths from breast cancer were prevented for every 1,000 women screened over 20 years in England.

The number of estimated cases of overdiagnosis was 2.3 per 1,000 women over the same period.

The authors, writing in the Journal of Medical Screening, said: "The benefit of mammographic screening in terms of lives saved is greater in absolute terms than the harm in terms of overdiagnosis.

"Between two and 2.5 lives are saved for every overdiagnosed case."

More than 45,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK and more than 12,000 die.