Breast Cancer: Screening

The Department welcomes the University of Manchester’s research on assessing risk of breast cancer in young women. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including breast cancer, as early and as quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes. As the first step to ensure faster diagnosis, the NHS is delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week. To support early detection and diagnosis, the NHS in England carries out approximately two million breast cancer screens each year in hospitals and mobile screening vans, usually in convenient community locations.

NHS England does not currently screen women younger than 50 years old for breast cancer. This is because the risk of women under this age developing breast cancer is low, and because mammograms are less reliable in this age group. Women below 50 years old tend to have denser breast tissue, which reduces ability to get an accurate mammogram.

This is in line with most European countries, most of whom screen women between the ages of 50 and 69 years old. Women with a very high risk of breast cancer, for example, due to family history, may be offered screening earlier and more frequently.

The National Cancer Plan, planned for publication later in 2025, will have patients at its heart and will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for patients of all ages, including those with breast cancer.