Some disturbing news from the NHS last month: according to the latest findings of their Breast Screening Programme, the proportion of women between the ages of 50 and70 taking up routine breast screening invitations in England fell to 70.5% in 2017-18 – down from 71.1% in 2016-17 and from 73.2% in 2007-08.

According to the findings, 2.54 million women in that age group were invited for breast screening in England during 2017-18 – and 1.79 million women took up the invitation. The highest uptake percentage was in the East Midlands at 73.6%, while the lowest was in London (63.3%) and the North West (69.8%).

Under the NHS Breast Screening Programme, women will usually receive their first routine invitation for breast cancer screening between the ages of 50 and 53 and will normally be invited every three years until they are 70. And during the period which fell under the report, 18,000 women were detected with some form of breast cancer – and 40.1 per cent of those (approximately 7,200 women) were invasive but small cancers which were less than 15mm in diameter and usually too small to detect by hand.

So, this reduced proportion – the lowest level of take-up in a decade – is an alarming development, particularly when combined with international research that was published in the Lancet recently which shows UK survival rates for cancer continue to lag behind the rest of the world, falling in the bottom half of the league tables for seven cancers and only coming in the top ten for two. Furthermore, another recent study claims that if the UK’s screening percentage matched the average in the rest of Europe, up to 10,000 deaths could be prevented each year if the UK matched the European average.

Why are the breast screening rates dropping?

It’s worth going over this again, because it could be a life-saver: around one in eight women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lifetime. Screening is designed to pinpoint these cancers when they are in their formative stage, because – as we all know – the earlier a cancer is detected, the higher the survival rate. Simply put, screenings remain the medical community’s best shot at detecting breast cancer in 2019.

However, screenings can only tell us so much. Sure, it can detect a cancer, but it can’t tell us whether it’s benign or dangerous. The current policy in the medical community remains ‘if in doubt, cut it out’, which means – according to a national review earlier this decade – for every life saved by screening, there are three instances of unnecessary surgery. Fear of discovering the worst is an obvious factor, too.

It’s better to know as early as possible

“In light of today’s troubling news that breast cancer survival in the UK is not keeping up with the rest of Europe, it’s worrying to see screening uptake in England at its lowest level in ten years,” said Samia al Qadhi, the chief executive of Breast Cancer Care – a UK-based charity which supports people with breast cancer. “Our concern is women may not be empowered to get the support and information they need to make a decision that’s right for them.

“Mammograms remain the most effective tool at our disposal for detecting breast cancer at the earliest possible stage. However, it’s crucial to be aware of what’s normal for you and get anything unusual checked out – remember it’s not just a lump to look out for.”

Our advice – as always – is to take that important first step and book an appointment. If there’s something there, it’s better to know as early as possible. Call 0800 612 9490 to arrange your breast screening appointment.

The good news: you have a far better chance of surviving a bout with cancer than you ever had before at any other time in history. And many people have. They announce they’ve been given the all-clear, close friends and family bombard them with congratulations, and everyone else they know gives them a thumbs-up on Facebook. And then…what?

A recent article in The Scotsman – which all of our clients are advised to check out – confirms that post-cancer care is still uncharted territory for the medical profession and a period of physical and mental stress on the patients. Instead of feeling nothing but relief from an all-clear diagnosis, many patients find that the support system they had relied upon has been taken away, they’re not yet physically ready to pick up the threads of their day-to-day life, and the fear that the cancer will return magnifies every new twinge and ache.

The unsurprising upshot of this period is that many patients spiral into anxiety and depression, and there are many reasons for this: as one former patient noted; “My treatment was like having a wee security blanket… once you are discharged you feel like you would be pestering the hospital.”

Having gone through the experience, patients are all too aware of the pressures foisted upon the medical profession and are loathe to add to them. Also, dealing with the feeling – or outright being told by others – that they’ve been ‘lucky’ or ‘strong’ can bring on feelings of guilt.

How to cope in the post-treatment period

Don’t be afraid to ask for help – your GP will want to keep tabs on you in any case, and if they feel your condition requires more specialist care, they’ll do their best to get it for you.

Accept that you’ve gone through a life-changing experience, and take steps to deal with the negative consequences of it. If that involves counselling and anti-depressant medication, so be it – but that’s a decision for you and your GP to make.

Use your cancer experience to help others

If there’s a support group for cancer sufferers in your area, get involved. When you were in their position, wouldn’t you have liked to talk to someone who had come through the other side? More importantly, you’re not alone – there will be scores of people in your area who have gone through what you have, and will know exactly how you’re feeling right about now. Maybe you should talk to each other.

Stay in touch with the people who helped you – no matter how busy they are. Remember, you became a part of their life while they were acting as your support system, and they’d appreciate a reminder that they did something that really helped you when you needed it.

If you’re feeling worried that the cancer may be returning, say something. The worst-case scenario will be that you’ve caught something early and have maximised your chances of a recovery. The other option is that you’ll be told by someone who knows that you’ve got nothing to worry about, and you’ll be given advice on how to check for a relapse.

For more information on how to cope post cancer treatment, please get in touch with our team.

Two recent news stories from very diverse sources – one from a medical magazine in America and one from a railway toilet in Leeds – have underlined something we’ve been aware of for a very long time: when you get into a fight with breast cancer, you need your mates to back you up.

According to a report published by Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society, lonely women who have survived breast cancer are 60% more likely to die of a reoccurrence of cancer than women who are more socially active – and socially isolated women have a 40% greater chance of the condition returning.

Breast cancer survival: stay social, stay healthy

The study, involving nearly 10,000 women for an average of ten and a half years after their diagnosis, found that there were 1,448 reoccurrences of cancer and 1,521 deaths – 990 of which were caused by breast cancer. And those with ‘stagnant social lives’ were at a far greater risk.

By ‘stagnant social lives’, they don’t necessarily mean ‘lonely’: women in long-term live-in relationships were just as likely to be placed in that particular bracket as single women. What they were referring to were women with a low level of close friends and participation in community activities. Simply put: there may be something in the idea that when you’ve put more effort into your social network, you’ve got more reasons to stay alive.

This study has led experts to push doctors to take a patient’s social situation into account when judging their prognosis. As Dr Candyce Kroenke from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in California pointed out; “(these findings) confirm the generally beneficial influence of women’s social ties on breast cancer recurrence and mortality. However, they also point to complexity, that not all social ties are beneficial and not in all women.”

The writing on the wall

Of course, the idea that emotional support during cancer can be just as important as medical support is not a new one – as one of the UK’s biggest charities has pointed out, and a recent news story from Leeds bears out. A cancer support poster in a railway toilet that was put up five years ago has been gradually covered with messages of support from women to other women to get checked out and stay strong – and the railway company have decided to keep it where it was years after it was due to be taken down.

And the even better news is that the woman in the poster – who was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy in 2004 – is still alive to comment on it. As she said to the BBC; “If we can all support each other, it’s a wonderful thing.”