Young women are dying of breast cancer. They MUST be screened too

Highlights from an excellent article!

The figures are stark: breast cancer is the most common cause of death in women aged 35 to 54, and the incidence is rising.

It used to be said that screening would pick up only a tiny proportion of breast cancers. In fact, 35 per cent of all breast cancers are found thanks to the national screening programme in the UK.

Screening this group also requires digital mammography - X-rays that are stored and sent electronically to a computer rather than taken on film.

This is because women under 50 have denser breast tissue, making small cancers harder to find using traditional mammograms. (It's having denser breast tissue that also puts them at greater risk of developing breast cancer.)

Digital mammography is better at finding cancers in dense breast tissue than standard mammograms, but it is more expensive.

It is available only in about 15 to 20 per cent of British hospitals, compared with more than 60 per cent in the U.S.