Breast Cancer Screening From 30 Years onwards

While the world debates on whether women should be regularly checked for breast cancer from 40-50 years, the Union  health ministry in a landmark step has decided to start screening from 30.

The ministry has written to states to start screening women for breast cancer, either through special organized camps or every woman who arrives at a community health center (CHC) for any other disease.

Interestingly, for the first time, India will  start  breast cancer screening from the grass-root level in CHCs and district hospitals.

To begin with, the screening  programme is being launched in 100 districts across 21 states.

Clinical  examinations of the breast will be undertaken in  privacy and in case a suspicious lump is found, the patient will be referred for biopsy.

The forum for Breast Cancer Protection says over 90,000 Indian women die of breast cancer every year, more than any other cancer. By current estimates, one in 25 Indian women will develop breast cancer  in her lifetime. Worryingly, Indian women seek treatment very late – around 65% are already in stage 3 or 4 when diagnosed.

India’s National Health Profile 2011 predicts that by 2020, breast cancer will over take cervical cancer as the most common type of cancer among Indian women.

A health ministry official said, “Breast Cancer is most common among women, who are aged 32-45. However, we don’t want to take a chance and have asked states to start screening from 30 years .

Hence, we could detect onset of breast cancer cases early.

He added, “Guidelines have been issued to states on how the screening should be undertaken. Karnataka and Gujarat have started screening, while Haryana and Rajasthan are all set to start. We have left it to states to decide how they want to undertake the screening. What will be essential is to raise awareness among women about early diagnosis and regular screening. States could start camps in CHCs or conduct a clinical examination on all women who attend a CHS or a district hospital.”

Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), under the country’s National Rural Health Mission, are being asked to visit door to door educating women about breast cancer and the benefit of early screening.

“Besides breast cancer, we would also screen for cervical cancer in women and mouth cancer for women. These cancers along with breast cancer counts  up to 705 of all cancers in India,” the ministry official said. The incidence of breast cancer in Japan, Singapore, South Korea and India is three times what is was 40 years ago.

It is known that if detected early, breast cancer is curable, with survival rates at over 90%. Breast cancer cases have doubled in India over the last two decades. As against an estimated 48,170 women who died of breast cancer in 2007, the toll breached the 50,000 mark in 2010. In 2011, the corresponding figure was 50,821.

A landmark analysis of cancer cases in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore between 1982 and 2005 (24 years) by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had found that while cervical cancer cases-earlier the most common-dipped, in some cases by almost 50%, the incidence of breast cancer doubled. While Bangalore saw breast cancer cases more than double since 1982-15.8 in a population of one lakh in 1982 to 32.2 in 2005-Chennai recorded 33.5 new cases of breast cancer per one lakh women in 2005 against 18.4 in 1982.