Breast Screening

Views on breast screening

Breast cancer is the most common cancer to affect women* and mammography (breast x-ray) is the only method that has been extensively studied and can detect breast cancer early. The stage at which breast cancer is diagnosed greatly influences survival. In general, the earlier the detection, the greater the chance of survival.

Most women we spoke with had no signs or symptoms and felt healthy before going for breast screening. Many felt that their cancer might not have been detected until they'd found a symptom, such as a lump, if they'd not gone for screening. By this stage, it might have become a much more serious problem and harder to treat. A few women said that they'd had no symptoms but their breast cancer had already affected the lymph glands under their arms. Many of these women believed that breast screening had saved their lives. One woman was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 39. If had she known younger women could get breast cancer, she said that she would have paid to have mammograms sooner, and encouraged other women to do so. Others strongly recommended that women with a family history of breast cancer should be screened (see 'Breast screening and younger women').

If she hadn't gone for screening, her cancer might not have been detected until it was much more...

If she hadn't gone for screening, her cancer might not have been detected until it was much more...

Age at interview: 55
Sex: Female
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I didn't have any sign that there was anything wrong and to wait for that lump to appear may be too late. Because the scary part of my journey was doctors telling me that I did have a spread through the lymph glands without me knowing that there was anything going wrong. So, to get that picked up really early, the outcome is so much better. And it's so important that if you get that invitation to go for screening please, please accept it because the outcome can be so much, much more better than what it could be if you let things run on and you're not picked up two years later where it's so much more difficult to control and you would have so much more invasive treatment. 

So, where possible, I emphasise the importance of breast screening, that it is so important to avail yourself of that opportunity and be reassured yourself that if you go for screening, that if there's anything there - yes, it can be dealt with and it can be dealt with early. And the outcome is so much more different and life goes on after cancer.  

Feels screening saved her life because she'd had no symptoms but her cancer had affected her...

Feels screening saved her life because she'd had no symptoms but her cancer had affected her...

Age at interview: 53
Sex: Female
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It was very tiny. It was four centimetres within the breast. It was sixteen millimetres in diameter and it was four centimetres within my breast. I would never have found that and to be honest I don't think I would have found it until it was too late. Because it was an aggressive invasive, it was at stage five B then. Now you know, by the time I would have found it, it was in two of my nodes already and I didn't know. I don't, I think she saved my life. I think I've had three years that I wouldn't have had if that woman hadn't have found that tumour because it was just such a late stage.  

If she'd known that younger women could get breast cancer, she would have had mammograms sooner.

If she'd known that younger women could get breast cancer, she would have had mammograms sooner.

Age at interview: 43
Sex: Female
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What amazes me is that, you know, we have the capabilities with mammograms today to pick these up so early and if you get cancer early, particularly breast cancer, it's a completely survivable thing. I mean if I had had a mammogram earlier I wouldn't even have had the chemo. So I'm quite strongly for mammograms.

I think had I been aware that women my age and the number of women my age get it with no history whatsoever, I would have happily paid and gone privately here, to go and have a mammogram on an annual basis. I would, I was lulled into a sense that it didn't apply to me.  

What would you say to someone who was invited for a mammogram and, because of what they'd heard or read, wasn't sure about going? 

I would say you are your own best advocate. There is no doctor, no healthcare system, no friend, no relative, no husband that's going to care about you or help the way that you can. And that, I would say, don't even wait to be invited. Take this into your own hands. You have absolute control of this. You can complain about the healthcare system. You can complain that you are not invited until you're fifty or that you only get one every three years or you can take it in your own hands and say this is my life and my health we're talking about. I want a mammogram. 

Recommends that women with a family history of breast cancer have breast screening.

Recommends that women with a family history of breast cancer have breast screening.

Age at interview: 37
Sex: Female
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I'd recommend them [women] to go, because if I wasn't being screened there's no way I'd have found the lump, even after they'd detected it I came home and still couldn't feel the lump. So I don't know how long it would have been if it had got left, before it was noticeable. If it was growing inwards I probably wouldn't have noticed it. So I'd definitely say to go for screening. If people have got a family history I'd say definitely seriously think about being screened. And obviously with the older age group as well, you know I've said it before, if I hadn't been screened I wouldn't have known I'd had it. So to me it's the thing that saved me really, very positive, yes.
 

All the women we spoke with who'd had breast cancer supported screening and recommended it to other women. However, no screening test is perfect and occasionally cancers may not be seen on mammograms. A few said their mammogram results had been normal but, several months later, they had developed symptoms. Further tests showed that they'd had breast cancer all along but it hadn't shown up on the mammogram. Despite doubts based on their experiences, all these women now supported screening. One said that, although she recommended screening to others, she wanted women to understand its limitations so they would not be falsely reassured (see 'False negative results').

Though her cancer hadn't shown up on mammogram, she supports breast screening.

Though her cancer hadn't shown up on mammogram, she supports breast screening.

Age at interview: 53
Sex: Female
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So, in your words, what are your opinions about screening because in your case it wasn't picked up? 

I know, I must say at first I was really angry and hurt and I really was upset, why? Why was mine not picked up? But I would tell all women to go for breast screening, I really would, you know and I continue to go myself. I think it's something you just have to do. 

So, at one point you were thinking, well the mammogram didn't pick up anything, didn't pick up your cancer, what's the point of having it, but you've changed your views?

I have, I have because I say my friend, I mean hers was detected by a mammogram, so I suppose like everything else, that there's, nothing is one hundred per cent accurate, you know, and there'll always be, well I won't say mistakes about myself, but there'll always be ones that go undetected, you know. And I must say, I'm not very good, and never was very good at examining my breasts on a regular basis, but I do try and do it more often. 

A few people felt that screening mammograms should be available to women every two years instead of every three. One found out she had breast cancer after a mammogram she'd had as part of a medical research project. She was grateful for breast screening and that project for finding her cancer. She and others believed that, despite some scepticism in the medical field, breast screening saved lives. Others believed that the benefits of breast screening far outweighed any potential risks such as radiation from the x-rays.

Believes that breast screening saved her life, despite scepticism in the medical field about...

Believes that breast screening saved her life, despite scepticism in the medical field about...

Age at interview: 60
Sex: Female
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It was a cancerous lump. A very small one, and not palpable by hand, so I really am extremely grateful to that mammogram, because it would have been another few months, possibly six months, before I was due for my next regular mammogram. These things can come so quickly in between. 

Because I do feel that someone was looking after me, that sent me for this Ibis trial, just at that time, because had it been another six months before I had a mammogram, had it been six months further on, it could have been out through the nodes. It could be right through the body - well maybe not that fast, unless it was a very aggressive one. 

I think it's a splendid, a splendid scheme and no matter what some of those that decry it say, it should be continued. I think it's saved a lot of lives. It certainly saved mine.  

One woman didn't attend for routine mammograms after her very first mammogram because she found it extremely painful. Some years later, she had a breast indentation and tests showed that she had breast cancer. She recommended screening and felt that doctors should do more to follow up on women who don't attend for it.

Recommends screening and feels that doctors should do more to follow up women who haven't attended.

Recommends screening and feels that doctors should do more to follow up women who haven't attended.

Age at interview: 68
Sex: Female
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Okay, and what's your opinion or view on mammograms, with everything that's happened?   

Well yes, they must be useful, I still think so, I do. Yes I'd go in for them, yes.

What would you say to someone who has been invited for their first mammogram, and they're not sure about going?  

Oh, I'd tell them to go, definitely, yes, mm. 

So you do go every time now?   

Yeah. 

Even though it's a bit painful?    

Yes.   

You just put up with it?   

Yes, that's right. Oh yes, the first one, as I say, was very painful indeed. The others weren't. So it must have been the operator, I don't know.   

So you missed a few and found the indentation yourself?

Yes, that's right. Yeah.  

And went to the doctors?

Yeah, yeah.     

And did they say anything about you not going for screening, or anything like that?     

No, no. In fact really, I think they were wrong. Because although I didn't go on my appointment, they didn't write and follow me up, and say 'why didn't you come?' Or talk to me. Now I think that's wrong. I think they should have done that. Whether I went or not, but they should have done that, I think. But as I say this was a few years ago. They might be more attentive today.      
 

One woman was upset and shocked when she was diagnosed with breast cancer but now feels it was better to know, and felt grateful that her cancer had been detected and treated early. Many women recommended that women should go for routine breast screening and be breast aware.

Was upset when diagnosed but now feels grateful her breast cancer was detected and treated early.

Was upset when diagnosed but now feels grateful her breast cancer was detected and treated early.

Age at interview: 52
Sex: Female
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I mean is it not better to know what you have? Is it not the worst thing to not know you have breast cancer, it must be terrible, it's better to know you have it. I mean look at me, I only had three millimetres. I don't know how they spotted that, it was so tiny but you know, if it stops me getting it worse, I'm so happy. I mean I'm so lucky. I keep thinking I'm so lucky. And I do count my blessings, you know. It's funny, at the time you just think "Oh, this is the worst thing in the world" but then you realise, when you come out, you know through it all, you realise "Gosh, I'm so lucky". You know, I'm saying that so often and you know, all my friends and my family are so good to me and everything. I'm just blessed you know. I never thought I could come out of breast cancer.

You know, from the very beginning I didn't, you know, I couldn't believe that I had breast cancer but the more I meet people, the more I read and the more I, you know, hear about it, is that I'm very lucky. They've caught it at the beginning and thank God for breast screening because they would never have got it.   


*(NHS Breast Cancer Screening Programme – Helping you decide leaflet July 2013)

Last reviewed March 2016.

Last updated March 2016.

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