Three-year breast screening target achieved in 12 months

Almost 70 per cent of women called up for free breast screening under the national programme have had a mammogram check-up, a target intended to be achieved in three years but reached in one.

The latest statistics from the National Centre for Breast Screening, which marked its first anniversary yesterday, show that 68.8 per cent of women aged between 50 and 60 – 7,076 – accepted the invitation to have their breasts checked for cancer.

Speaking at the centre in Valletta, Health Minister Joe Cassar said the centre’s success in its first year of operation lay not only in the fact that the three-year target was reached in a short time but also in that it was achieved using only one mammography machine. A second was in the process of being bought and would expand the service on offer, he said.

The start of the free breast screening programme in Gozo last week was another means to extend it, offering women from the north of the island the option to do their check-up in either hospital.

Set up in collaboration between medical teams from the Health and Gozo Ministries, it started with 15 Gozitan women undergoing the screening at Gozo General Hospital, Dr Cassar said.

Since the Valletta centre opened in October last year, 12.4 per cent of the women who were screened – 687 – were called a second time for further investigations and 45 of them were diagnosed with very early stages of cancer – but also a big possibility of being saved.

Following an in-depth evaluation of these cases by Mater Dei Hospital’s multi-disciplinary team and the administering of adequate treatment, they would be able to live a quality life, Dr Cassar said.

Close cooperation between the centre and family doctors meant every woman who wanted the opinion and guidance of her GP on the results of the mammogram could simply indicate his name and the information would be sent electronically, Dr Cassar said.

The service was offered strictly on the request of the patients to respect their privacy, Dr Cassar stressed, adding that 90 per cent of the centre’s clients made use of it, benefitting from the opportunity to have a second opinion and put their minds at rest on the results from the breast screening team.

The minister expressed his “immense satisfaction” at the response to the government’s appeal to accept its invitation and said a publicity campaign, now under way, was bearing fruit.

The Prime Minister’s wife, Kate Gonzi, and representatives of the voluntary organisations, Action for Breast Cancer Foundation and the Breast Care Support Group, attended the centre’s first anniversary.