Cancer: Screening

(asked on 23rd January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to introduce testing for all women over 30 years old for early signs of (a) ovarian and (b) breast cancer.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 29th January 2018

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) offers screening to an asymptomatic population for conditions which have been evaluated against their robust and extensive criteria. The UK NSC last reviewed the evidence to screen for ovarian cancer in 2016 and recommended that population screening should not be offered. Research has shown that screening women under the age of 50 is less effective especially when they have not entered into the menopause phase.

There are currently no plans to offer screening to women over the age of 30 for either ovarian or breast cancer.

A proposal to change an existing programme, such as age to the breast screening programme would follow the UK NSC’s evidence review process. Information about this process is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-nsc-evidence-review-process

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