Breast cancer screening must remain a priority

Early detection is crucial in helping women win the fight against breast cancer.

BreastScreen NSW’s decision earlier this week suspend all routine breast screenings statewide allowing staff to help manage COVID-19 appears to be short-sighted.

Breast cancer specialists have reported that the shutdown of routine screening services last year resulted in delays in detecting and treating cancers. Six months can be the difference between less invasive surgery and mastectomy and the need for more radiation or chemotherapy.

University of Sydney breast cancer expert Professor Fran Boyle said that after routine screening services were suspended during last year’s lockdown, women began to develop more breast cancer. important at the end of the year. Many were overwhelmed by a sense of regret.

The Radiation Therapy Advisory Group (RTAG), an alliance of cancer patient advocates, healthcare providers, medical technology providers and oncology professionals, published a report this week which highlighted the risks of delayed screening and diagnosis of breast cancer. He says Australian health experts predict that when normal screening services resume, “patients will have more advanced cancers because they missed the screenings and went undiagnosed.”

The report says there were 145,000 fewer mammograms in Australia between January and June last year compared to the same period in 2018. Screening rates fell 37% during Victoria’s lockdown. last year and breast cancer surgeries fell 33%.

NSW Police Minister David Elliott, whose wife Nicole is a breast cancer survivor, knows the importance of early detection and is urging the state government to reopen breast cancer screening services. Labor MP Sophie Cotsis, who has also been successfully treated for breast cancer, is also behind the reopening of services. She says that “the closure of breast cancer screening clinics is appalling and plays with women’s lives.”

Breast cancer leaders, including Professor John Boyages, who led breast cancer services at Westmead Hospital and across the state as a former director of BreastScreen NSW, believe the shutdown temporary testing services is an “overreaction”. He says breast cancer screening is no different from providing other radiology or general medicine services, in terms of safety management and COVID-19 infection control.

Professor Boyages stressed the importance of prioritizing breast cancer which is one of the most common causes of cancer death in women.

Professor Boyle, president of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, suggested there should be a route for vaccinated patients and healthcare professionals to access breast cancer screening. Sounds reasonable.