Seán Barrett
Question:425. Deputy Seán Barrett asked the Minister for Health his views on the outcomes of the national cancer screening service and the progress to date. [25440/17]
View answerTuesday, 30 May 2017
Questions (425)
Written answers
Evidence-based screening programmes are an important element of cancer control internationally. The National Screening Service (NSS) oversees the three national cancer screening programmes: BreastCheck, CervicalCheck and BowelScreen.
The implementation of national, population based screening programmes for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer was recommended by the 2006 National Cancer Strategy, A Strategy for Cancer Control in Ireland. In the 2014 Evaluation Panel Report on the implementation of that Strategy, the panel noted that excellent progress had been made in the area of screening in Ireland since its commencement.
To date, BreastCheck has detected over 8,500 cancers. CervicalCheck has detected 1,082 invasive cervical cancers, 41,417 high-grade abnormalities and 29,508 low-grade abnormalities. In its first three year screening round which finished in December 2015, BowelScreen detected 521 cancers and led to the removal of over 13,000 precancerous adenomas.
The objective of screening is to detect disease before it has developed to the point where it results in symptoms. Thus, these numbers represent members of our population who would not otherwise have been aware that they had cancer, or that they were at risk of developing cancer. Without the intervention of the screening programmes, many of these people may not have received the care they needed in a timely manner leading to better outcomes.