Free cancer screening extended

By REBECCA WALSH health reporter



The free breast screening programme is being extended to women aged 45 to 70.

Health Minister Annette King announced the extension to the BreastScreen Aotearoa programme yesterday, saying it could potentially save a further 32 lives a year.

The extension has been welcomed by the Cancer Society and the Breast Cancer Foundation.

But Tauranga couple Tim and Debbie Short, who presented a petition to the Government calling for the age to be lowered to 40, say it does not go far enough.

Since 1998, women aged 50 to 64 have been eligible for a state-funded mammogram every two years.

Ms King said the original decision on the age-range was made mainly because of capacity constraints.

The programme had been reviewed in the past year and international evidence considered to see how it should be expanded.

"There is clear evidence of the strong benefit of extending the age range upward, but the further you take the age range down, the less conclusive the evidence becomes."

The possibility of lowering the age to 40 would be considered when the results of a major British study were released next year.

The study of 195,000 women will assess the benefits of screening women aged 40 to 49.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths for females in New Zealand. Each year about 2200 women develop breast cancer and 640 die from the disease.

Ms King said each year about 240 women aged 45 to 49 were diagnosed with breast cancer and about 53 of them would die from it.

The extended programme, estimated to cost an extra $13.2 million, would be rolled out progressively from July 1 to ensure the sector could cope with demand - an extra 238,000 women would be eligible.

Dr Belinda Scott, chairwoman of the Breast Cancer Foundation's medical committee, said although the extension was years late it was "fantastic" news and brought New Zealand into line with many other countries.

But Dr Scott said not enough women participated in the programme and she urged eligible women to take advantage of the free service.

The foundation planned to lobby the Government to be able to use electoral rolls to contact women directly and invite them to participate.

Betsy Marshall, spokeswoman on cancer screening for the Cancer Society, said the society had long supported screening women aged up to 70.

Evidence showed that women aged 50 to 70 who took part in regular screening reduced their chances of dying from the disease by more than a third.

But Tim Short, who with his wife Debbie, a breast cancer survivor, presented a 124,000-signature petition to Parliament calling for the screening age to be lowered to 40, said studies had found cancers in younger women were often more aggressive and early detection was vital.

The Shorts plan to present a submission to the health select committee tomorrow outlining the national and international evidence in favour of screening for women from 40.

They also have organised a national "day of shame" outside the electorate offices of Labour MPs on Saturday to protest against the exclusion of women aged 40 to 45 from the free screening.