Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve early detection of breast cancer in women under 50 who do not routinely undergo mammogram screenings.

Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including breast cancer, is a priority for NHS England. We will improve cancer survival rates and hit all National Health Service cancer waiting time targets, so that no patient waits longer than they should.

Screening is also crucial to improving early diagnosis, and current United Kingdom guidelines recommend that women with a moderate or high risk of breast cancer because of their family history should start having screening mammograms every year in their forties. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance on the management of people with a family history of breast cancer was introduced in 2004, and has changed over time. The current version of this guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg164

We currently do not screen those younger than 50 years old for breast cancer due to the lower risk of women under this age developing breast cancer, and the fact that women below 50 years old tend to have denser breast tissue, which reduces the ability of getting an accurate mammogram. It may also increase the risk of overtreatment and distress for women who do not have breast cancer, but would be subject to invasive and painful medical treatments and diagnostic tests.