Breast Cancer Screening: Women Over 70

Lord Kamall Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I wondered when someone was going to mention “The Archers”. My noble friend is referring to BRCA and BRCA2 screening. It is incredibly serious that some people are wary of going through screening because of the possible implications hanging over their children. We all need to work to make that screening more of a possibility. I have to declare that my eldest sister died from breast cancer when she was in her late 50s. It is a dreadful thing to happen to families, and we have to make sure all families who go through this are aware of what they need to do and that the information is as widely available as possible.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for sharing her personal experience; I am sure our thoughts are with her. The Government have rightly said they want a shift from treatment to prevention, and the Minister will know that one element of prevention is testing and early diagnosis. We know that about one-third of breast cancers are diagnosed in women over 70, and this increases with age. We have heard that many women are not aware of screening on demand. Apart from the health and emotional consequences, when the Government conducted a cost-benefit analysis of ending routine screening, were they absolutely certain that any money saved in the short term was not outweighed by the extra cost of treating patients with later-stage cancer, which will be harder to treat and will end up costing the Government more money?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I reassure the noble Lord that all these factors are taken into account. I would warn against complacency. To go back to my personal experience, my sister had regular breast screening and it was not picked up because of the type of cancer that she had. I am delighted that the noble Lord, Lord Vallance, is leading the work on looking at how we can better screen women and make sure that the work we do is the most effective and reaches the highest number of women possible.