Breast Screening Programme - England, 2007-08 [NS]

At 31 March 2008:

Among women aged 53-64

• over three-quarters (76.7 per cent) had been screened at least once in the previous three years, an increase from last year (76.0 per cent). This is the fourth consecutive increase.

Among women aged 53-70

• over three quarters (75.9 per cent) had been screened at least once in the previous three years (up from 73.8 per cent last year)
• coverage among those women aged 65-70 (in the extended part of the programme) has now reached 73.9 per cent an increase of 6.1 percentage points from 31 March 2007, as the programme continues to be rolled out.

2007-08

• over 2.2 million women (aged 45 and over) were invited for screening, an increase of 5.0 per cent over last year and 52.5 per cent more than ten years ago
• over 1.7 million women (aged 45 and over) were screened within the programme, an increase of 4.3 per cent over 2006-07. The last ten years have seen the programme grow by 45.2 per cent from 1.2 million in 1997-98
• there were 14,110 cases of cancer diagnosed in women screened aged 45 and over, an increase of 5.0 per cent over the previous year (13,443) and double the number in 1997-98 (6,914)
• of all cancers diagnosed, 11,110 (78.7 per cent) were invasive and of these 5,814 (52.3 per cent) were 15mm or less which could have not been detected by hand.