Mammograms in the much-awaited national breast-screening programme would be inspected by more than one radiologist in a bid to detect any errors in interpretation, the government said in the wake of a scare in the UK which saw 14 women being wrongly given the all-clear.
It turned out that a hospital consultant in the UK missed cancer signs. The women were later diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and another five were diagnosed with a less serious condition.
A spokesman for the Health Parliamentary Secretariat said that "double-reading" would be taking place when the screening programme kicked off. "The programme has been set up to ensure that errors are detected at an early stage and that the appropriate action is taken," he said.
The government spokesman said the local programme would be compliant with EU Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnosis. While describing mammography as "the cornerstone" of breast cancer screening, the guidelines stress the important role of radiologists in the programme, adding that they have to take primary responsibility for the image quality and diagnostic interpretation.
The screening programme, targeting women aged between 50 and 59 years, was meant to be introduced this month but asked to specify when the government spokesman would only say "soon".
The importance that each test was double-checked was highlighted last November by Salvina Zrinzo, president of the Maltese Association of Radiologists.
Contacted yesterday, Dr Zrinzo said that between 50 and 60 per cent of local women were already getting regular mammograms privately.
She stressed the importance of screening in catching disease and saving women's lives. "One of the reasons why fewer women are dying of cancer is screening," she said.
However, even when mammograms were accompanied with an ultrasound, there was still a five per cent chance of not detecting an existing cancer. "There are some cancers which are not visible on a mammogram or ultrasound," she said. There are also aggressive cancers that develop between screening appointments.
On the other hand, screening could also give rise to further interventions when a lump was detected, even if this turned out to be benign. "Whenever you screen, you will always encounter non-malignant growths, which need to be tested further," Dr Zrinzo said.
The breast-screening programme was originally announced in the budget for last year. Although in December 2007 then Health Minister Louis Deguara had said the programme should be up and running in a short time, this never materialised and it was mentioned again in last November's budget, when a sum of €700,000 was also allocated.
The programme is expected to see about 30,000 women called for screening over a three-year-period. The initial screening will be done through a mammogram, although a number of women will be further screened through a combination of further X-ray images, magnified views, ultrasound tests and guided tissue samples.
According to figures collected by the Malta National Cancer Registry, there were 2,379 new cases of breast cancer between 1996 and 2006. Just over 900 women succumbed to the disease between 1996 and 2007.