Mammogram reminders can save women's lives
Second chance: mammogram reminders that were sent out resulted in 1,550 cases of breast cancer being detected
The importance of sending reminders to women who fail to respond to an invitation for a free X-ray to detect if they may have breast cancer is underlined in a new study.
BreastCheck is now operating countrywide and offers free X-rays, known as mammograms, to women aged 50-64 every two years.
However, many women do not respond to the first invitation letter and need to be followed up with reminders.
The new research shows that 1,550 cancers were detected in women who failed to respond to the first invitation but came for the mammogram after the reminder.
These cancers made up one third of all the cases of the disease detected by BreastCheck over 10 years of its operation.
The research was carried out by the National Cancer Screening Service and School of Public Health at UCD and published in the 'Irish Medical Journal'.
The aim was to measure the impact of these reminder invitations in terms of response and detection of cancer.
The study pointed out that getting a high participation rate in any organised cancer screening programme was essential if deaths from the disease were to be reduced.
It found that over 10 years there were 819,182 first invitations sent but just 448,974 (54.8pc) women attended.
However, after the reminder invitations, 245,157 previous no-shows turned up for screening. This increased the attendance rate overall to 84.7pc.
BreastCheck was under pressure last year to meet its targets to screen all women within the two-year time frame but it has now secured approval for a number of radiography posts and recruitment is under way.
Its recent annual report for 2010 said the numbers of women offered hospital admission for treatment within three weeks of diagnosis of breast cancer fell below the target set out in the BreastCheck Women's Charter.
"Providing timely admission has proved challenging at times and BreastCheck is working closely with its host hospitals to develop a service response to address this issue," it said.
It also acknowledged that, despite the reminder letters, there was a group of women who were not responding and were persistent non-attenders. They have not formally opted out of the programme and continue to be invited.
Breast cancer survival rates overall are improving thanks to a combination of screening, early detection and better and more effective treatment options.
Originally published in
