Breast Cancer: Screening
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of lowering the minimum age of mammograms for breast cancer checks.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
We currently do not screen those younger than 50 years old for breast cancer due to the lower risk of women under this age developing breast cancer, and the fact that women below 50 years old tend to have denser breast tissue, which reduces the ability of getting an accurate mammogram. It may also increase the risk of overtreatment and distress for women who do not have breast cancer, but who would be subject to invasive and painful medical treatments and diagnostic tests.
United Kingdom guidelines recommend that women with a moderate or high risk of breast cancer, because of their family history, should start having screening mammograms every year in their forties. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on the management of people with a family history of breast cancer was introduced in 2004, and has changed over time. The current version of this guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg164
There is a large trial, Age Extension, which is exploring whether an additional screen before 50 years old would meet the UK National Screening Committee’s criteria. Results are expected in 2026.
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