A national programme to screen for breast cancer, which has long been in the offing, is expected to be introduced in September although similar schemes for cervical and colorectal cancer are not even in the pipeline, The Times has learned.

Following a damning EU report which ranked Malta among the worst performers in the 27-strong bloc in terms of cancer prevention programmes, the Health Ministry said the government has not yet decided whether to launch cervical and colorectal cancer screening.

"The government has not yet taken a decision on these programmes since it is focusing on getting the breast cancer screening programme off the ground," a ministry spokesman said.

A screening programme for women aged between 50 and 59, who are considered to be most at risk of breast cancer, was announced in the Budget for last year. Then Health Minister Louis Deguara said in December 2007 that it should be up and running in a short time.

However, the programme never saw the light of day and was again mentioned in last November's Budget, which allocated €700,000 to it.

About 30,000 women aged between 50 and 59 will be called for screening over three years. Initial screening will be done through a mammogram but a number of women will be screened further through a combination of further X-ray images, magnified views, ultrasounds and guided tissue samples if required.

The spokesman said experience gained through implementing the breast screening programme will help guide decisions on the planning and design of other cancer screening, "should a decision to embark on such programmes be taken in the future".

She also said that a cancer strategy is expected to be published later in the year.

Figures collected by the Malta National Cancer Registry show there were 2,379 new cases of breast cancer, 919 new cases of colorectal cancer and 101 new cases of cervical cancer between 1996 and 2006.

In 2003, the EU had asked member states to implement national screening programmes for the three cancers and Malta and Romania are the only two EU countries which do not yet have any of the them up and running.

A European Commission official said Malta had to pull up its socks and start delivering on cancer screening.

Contacted by The Times, Boffa Hospital's Oncology Department chairman Stephen Brincat said despite the lack of programmes, there was substantial ad hoc screening taking place.

The lack of human resources was a stumbling block in the launch of screening programmes, he said, adding he believed Malta does not have the resources for colorectal screening and neither is he sure there are the resources for mammography screening.

Last November, the president of the Maltese Association of Radiologists, Sandra Zrinzo, said the national breast screening programme will need more radiologists than those working at Mater Dei Hospital for it to work out.

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