Call for breast cancer screening in all member states

Date: 05/06/03

EU MEMBER states have been urged to introduce national screening programmes to help combat the rising death toll from breast cancer.

At present, only eight EU countries have such schemes: Belgium, the UK, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, France and Luxembourg.

In the UK, the mortality rate for breast cancer has fallen by 29 in the seven years since it implemented a screening programme.

Now a report by German Socialist MEP Karin Jöns, who has survived breast cancer, calls for mammography screening programmes to be launched in all member states for women aged 50-69 within five years.

She has also called for the introduction of breast cancer registers and specialist centres for treating the disease in each member state.

Jöns said: "This is a realistic target and one which, if achieved, will help considerably to reduce the death rate from this disease."

Research shows that, in the EU, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every two-and-a-half minutes and someone dies from the disease every six minutes.

Breast cancer is the most common cause of death in women between the ages of 35 and 55 in the EU.

Jöns, however, says the mortality rate could be cut by as much as 25 if women were offered "high-quality" screening.

She herself was diagnosed with breast cancer the day after her victory in the 1999 European elections. Now, four years later and having won her battle against the disease, she is fighting to make sure other women do not have to face the same ordeal.

"It was a very positive experience for me in the end and, when I came back to the European Parliament, I said we have to take up this issue at a European level," she said.

"The fact that only eight member states have screening programmes simply is not good enough. Every woman has the right to be treated."

Jöns says that the cost of the twice-yearly mammography tests she is proposing should be met by private insurance.

She said: "There will be a cost implication to all this, but nothing comes free and the long-term benefits of introducing screening programmes justify the cost.

"The big problem at the moment is the vested interest of health workers in those member states that don't have screening programmes.

"Radiographers receive an average €70 per examination but they stand to lose this if the service they currently provide is replaced by a national screening programme."

Jöns, a member of the Parliament's women's rights committee, also says women should receive tests results within five days.

"At present, many have to wait up to 14 days and that, naturally, can be a very worrying time."