BREAST CANCER SCREENINGS IN CYPRUS THIRD LOWEST IN EU

 Cyprus Mail 14 October 2020 - by Annette Chrysostomou

Cyprus has the third lowest percentage of women who are screened for breast cancer in the EU, a Eurostat report published on Wednesday shows.

In 2018, the proportion of women aged 50-69 years who had been screened for breast cancer using a mammography within the previous two years differed greatly among member states.

Based on screening programmes, seven member states had breast cancer screening rates below 50 per cent. The lowest rates were recorded in Bulgaria, 21 per cent, Slovakia, 30 per cent and Cyprus with 33 per cent.

Three member states reported breast cancer screening rates over 75 per cent, Finland (84 per cent), Denmark (83 per cent) and the Netherlands (77 per cent).

Compared with 2013 the rates of breast cancer screening increased between 2013 and 2018 for nine of the 20 EU countries for which data are available. The largest increases were recorded in Lithuania (+11.6 percentage points (pp)), Latvia (+7.9 pp) and Malta (+7.1 pp).

Cyprus is one of the countries where screening increased, from 31.7 per cent in 2013 to 33 per cent in 2018.

However, it peaked in 2016 with 35.2 per cent and has since declined.

In the 11 member states where screening rates fell, the reductions were usually relatively small, with most notable decreases in Slovenia, -8.3 percentage points, and Germany, -7.2 percentage points.