Age discrimination in Cancer Screening services

I had a mammogram at 70 and was advised at the hospital to ensure I rang from then on to book future appointments. This I have done with no problem. However if the breast screening clinic feels it necessary to advice women over 70 to continue to have screening why do we no longer get sent to routine appointments.

So it's not unfair discrimination. It discriminates for good reasons. There's an important difference.

Thank you, MrsSquirrel. This is the impression I'd formed from information I'd picked up over the years.

It is not an arbitrary cut-off though, there are medical reasons for it. There is a debate about the benefits of breast screening in older women vs the risk of over-diagnosis.

Over-diagnosis means being diagnosed with something that otherwise would not have led to symptoms or problems in a person's lifetime. The risks could be things like having unnecessary treatment and also the stress and worry of it all.

The rationale for the screening programme looks at the benefits vs the risk for the population as a whole. The evidence for screening of 40-70 year olds is clear. The evidence of benefit for over 70s as a group is not so clear.

Here is a news article about a recent study. The researchers did not find differences between the groups in the number of cancers that were diagnosed at more advanced stages or in deaths from breast cancer
www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/women-over-70-risk-breast-cancer-overdiagnosis-with-screening-us-study-finds-2023-08-07/

By all means, go for a mammogram if you want one. That's an individual decision.

Signed,but my health authority have given contact details should I want the tests in 3 years, now 70 have had bowel and breast screening this year.
I will continue to request them.
No need of cervical smear as had a toral hysterectomy 30 years ago.
Just an add on my soon to be 25 DGD called for her first smear,I explained its importance,was praised by the nurse as not many of this age group take up the offer.

Signed!

Over 70s can Continue with mammograms etc by making an appointment every 3 years.
I am 75 and had mine a couple of weeks ago.
Smears too if required I think.

In Scotland if you ask for bowel screening after the cut off you will get it . I asked for breast screening and got it because I had already had breast cancer . I have decided cervical smears are not for me now but when I asked my GP some years ago he just did one for me .

Wenmore

If you are over the age range for breast/bowel cancer screening you can ring the appropriate helpline and you will be offered screening.

You will not be in Cumbria, I thought you had to phone two years after your last at 70 for Breast screening but was told it was three. They are also still sending out bowel screening tests both Dh and I have had them this year.Maybe it differs in different Health Authorities?

Thank you.
I've signed.

I had a mammogram a couple of weeks ago (I am 71) I was told it was the last one I would be called for but I can request a Mammogram every 2 years if I want one.

That's good to know, Wenmore, thanks.

If you are over the age range for breast/bowel cancer screening you can ring the appropriate helpline and you will be offered screening.

"The whole point of universal screening is to catch cancers early when treatment is more likely to be successful."

Is this, perhaps, the pertinent point? I'm asking because I'm wondering, as a non-medic, if treatment for cancers such as the ones mentioned is statistically less likely to be successful in older people, and especially so in people in their eighties and nineties.

I guess I don't want to assume that the reason for the cut off dates is mere callousness.

Thanks for this. I’ve signed.