Letters

It is excellent news that breast cancer has decreased substantially over the past 10 years - the exact period when women between 50 and 64 have been called for three-yearly breast screening.

However, it is alarming that the prejudice against older women is so embedded in the NHS that those over 64, who have by far the highest rates of breast cancer, are excluded from the breast screening programme. Breast cancer is easier to detect in older women, and treatment is highly effective. The government's refusal to extend the breast screening programme is financial. The NHS would need more screeners, radiologists and breast surgeons, and despite its commitment to the treatment of cancer, it is not prepared to spend its additional resources on older women.

Thousands of older women will unnecessarily die until the government removes this inequitable age barrier for the detection of cancer.

Malcolm Alexander Chief officer Southwark community health council

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