Breast cancer screening fell to a new low in England in 2017 as nearly 800,000 women declined invitations to receive mammograms, according to a 20 December report in the Daily Mail.
Out of 2.54 million women invited for screening, 749,300 did not go for the test, for a screening rate of 70.5%, the Mail reported. All English women between 50 and 70 are invited for routine breast cancer screening every three years.
The drop in screening may be related to a scandal that occurred in May when former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that around half a million women might have missed their routine breast screening because of a "computer algorithm failure," the Mail said. The true number of women affected was much lower, however, and they were followed up within an appropriate time frame, according to the article.
