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    • Screening
      • Brief history
      • Definition of terms
      • Performance of mammography
      • Screening and HRT
      • Potential effect of breast screening
      • Screening statistics
      • Issues around breast screening
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UK Breast Cancer screening

This section presents information and statistics on breast screening from the NHS Breast Screening Programmes in the UK.

Summary of breast screening activity in the UK – 2004/2005

• More than 2 million women aged 50-70 years were invited for screening
• 1.7 million women were screened
• 83,000 women were recalled for further tests – 4.8% of women screened
• Nearly 14,000 cancers were detected – 17% of those undergoing further tests, 0.8% of all women screened
• 2004 was the first year that women aged 65 to 70 were invited for breast screening

In this section you can read about:

• a brief history of the breast screening programme
• definition of terms used in breast screening
• sensitivity and specificity of mammography
• breast screening and Hormone Replacment Therapy
• the potential effect of breast screening
• statistics from the breast screening programme
• issues around breast screening

More information about breast screening

Cancer screening saves lives. But we know it could save even more.

Sign our pledge to show your support for our Screening Matters campaign calling on the UK governments to commit to getting more people into cancer screening and making sure the best possible programmes are available.

Find out more about why early detection of breast cancer is important and Cancer Research UK funded research into breast screening.

CancerHelp UK, our patient information website answers your questions about mammography.

Further breast screening programme statistics can be found on the NHS Breast Screening Programme website.

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