New plan to tackle breast cancer head on

By Alexia Saoulli

A ‘BLIND screening’ breast cancer programme will be implemented as early as January 1 and yesterday had the support of the House Health Committee, said Health Minister Frixos Savvides. The cabinet had already approved a budget of £1.8 million to carry out the project, he added.

“Blind screening means that all women between the ages of 50-65 will have mammograms, following European Union guidelines, irrespective of whether or not they are healthy. It will include the entire female population within that age group and is not based on women that are suspected of having breast cancer,” he said.

Cyprus Breast Cancer Movement (Europa Donna Cyprus) President Stella Kyriakides, likened breast cancer prevention as it stands in Cyprus today to “winning the lottery.”

“This early screening programme must adhere to all prescriptions such a programme demands and include all aspects involved in breast cancer diagnosis, from mammograms and breast tissue analysis to surgery,” she said. “In order to reduce the number of deaths, we must follow all European directions to the letter in all aspects of preventions,” Kyriakidou added.

Although she expressed the hope that Cyprus would not be long in implementing this system of early diagnosis, she stressed: “If it is not implemented properly, it’s better off not being implemented at all.”

Kyriakidou pointed out that a number of countries abroad had specialised x- ray prevention methods, trained breast surgeons and clinics specially equipped to deal with breast cancer and expressed the hope that Cyprus would be moving in the same direction.

Following yesterday’s House Committee, its Chairman Antonis Karas said it was keeping an eye on the programme, which it was most interested in promoting. “The House of Representatives will help the Health Ministry with the implementation of this programme,” he said.

DISY deputy Eleni Theocharous also added that countries that had adopted this early screening policy had reduced breast cancer deaths by up to 30 per cent.

Savvides said the mammograms carried out would be done in the public sector and any laboratories in the private sector as long as they were fully equipped to carry out the procedure. But, he added, there were a number of private institutions that wanted the Ministry’s guarantee that there would be a set number of women directed to them before they upgraded their facilities.

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