Breast Cancer Screening

The NHS Breast Screening Programme is offered to women between the ages of 50-70 years. Women are offered a mammogram every 3 years. After the age of 70 years women may still have mammograms but are 'encouraged to make their own appointments'.

The effectiveness of breast screening is regularly debated although it is currently thought that the NHS Breast Screening Programme may save around 1,400 lives per year.

Familial breast cancer

NICE published guidelines on the management of familial breast cancer in 2013, giving guidelines on who needs referral.

If the person concerned only has one first-degree or second-degree relative diagnosed with breast cancer they do NOT need to be referred unless any of the following are present in the family history:

• age of diagnosis < 40 years
• bilateral breast cancer
• male breast cancer
• ovarian cancer
• Jewish ancestry
• sarcoma in a relative younger than age 45 years
• glioma or childhood adrenal cortical carcinomas
• complicated patterns of multiple cancers at a young age
• paternal history of breast cancer (two or more relatives on the father's side of the family)

Women who are at an increased risk of breast cancer due to their family history may be offered screening from a younger age. The following patients should be referred to the breast clinic for further assessment:

• one first-degree female relative diagnosed with breast cancer at younger than age 40 years, or
• one first-degree male relative diagnosed with breast cancer at any age, or
• one first-degree relative with bilateral breast cancer where the first primary was diagnosed at younger than age 50 years, or
• two first-degree relatives, or one first-degree and one second-degree relative, diagnosed with breast cancer at any age, or