News Release

22nd October 2004

MICHAEL FABRICANT URGES WOMEN TO TAKE UP BREAST SCREENING APPOINTMENTS

Michael Fabricant has joined forces with other MPs of all political parties and Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the UK's leading breast cancer charity, to highlight the need for all women aged 50 and over in the west midlands to attend their breast-screening appointments when invited.

Breast screening invites are sent to all women aged between 50 and 65 every three years and this is being extended to women up to 70 by the end of 2004. New research from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer and Breakthrough, with the support of Kodak's Health Imaging Group, reveals not all women in this age group are taking advantage of the service.

Michael Fabricant says: "Breast cancer is now the UK's most common cancer with over 40,000 women diagnosed from the disease each year and one in nine women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some stage during their lifetime. "The earlier breast cancer is detected the better your chances of survival. The NHS Breast Screening Programme is a vital and effective part of the UK's efforts to reduce the death toll from this devastating disease but it's essential women in Staffordshire and the rest of the West Midlands take advantage of this and attend when invited."

In their report published this month, the All-Party Parliamentary Group and Breakthrough reveal that one in six women not attending their breast screening invitations say it is because the appointment given to them was not convenient. As a result they cancelled it and never rearranged another time. The report also recognises that in some areas of the country the uptake of screening invitations falls as much as 20% short of the NHS Breast Screening Programme's 70% target. The research, a survey of 2,500 women, also suggest that women aged 50 plus, and therefore eligible for the NHS Breast Cancer Screening Programme, underestimate the benefits of the breast screening and at the same time overestimate their own ability to spot signs of the disease. Of those women surveyed who reported not attending their breast screening appointments:

* Approximately one in 14 (7%) thought they were not in a high-risk category for developing the disease - although over 80% of all breast cancers occur in women aged 50 and over and your risk of developing the disease increases the older you get.

* Nine per cent said they felt they knew their own bodies well enough to spot breast cancer - despite the fact that of all the breast cancers detected by the screening programme, over half are too small to be felt by the human hand and that a lump in the breast or armpit is not the only sign of the disease.

* One in 10 said they would rather not know whether they had breast cancer or not - even though the sooner breast cancer is diagnosed and treated the better the chances of survival.