Breast cancer screenings missed by additional 50,000 women due to error, doctor warns

Tens of thousands more women may have missed breast cancer screenings because an error which the government said arose in 2009 may go back even further, a doctor has warned.

Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, announced this month that hundreds of lives may have been lost prematurely because of an IT error which meant 450,000 women were not invited to their final routine mammogram.

But Professor Peter Sasieni, a cancer screening and prevention researcher at King’s College London, said he believed more women may have been missed as it appeared the error arose earlier than first thought.

Mr Hunt said the error was discovered in January and may have led to up to 270 women having their lives cut short. An independent review has now been launched to find out the true extent of any harm and why it took so long to spot.

Prof Sasieni studied data from the breast cancer screening programme between 2004 and 2017, looking at the number of eligible women who were sent invitations each year between the ages of 45 and 70.

In a letter published in medical journal The Lancet, Prof Sasieni said that between 2004 and 2005 – when the programme was extended to the age of 70 – the number of invitations sent to women aged 65 to 70 was “very low”.

A third of eligible women should have been invited every year – but Prof Sasieni claimed the figures showed it was 31 per cent in 2005-06, rising to almost 35 per cent in 2016-17.

By comparison, between 34 per cent and 38 per cent of people aged 50 to 64 were invited each year.

The difference meant more than 500,000 could have missed out on invitations since 2005, he concluded - 50,000 more than acknowledged by Mr Hunt.

The letter stated: “Data that might have alerted people to the lower-than-expected number of invitations being sent to women aged 70 were publicly available, but no-one looked at them carefully enough.

“Some of the fault lies in the way the data was presented, but it is also unclear whose responsibility it is to monitor such outcomes.”

Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, said: “It’s concerning to hear the suggestion that even more women may have been affected by missed screening invitations, and we urge Public Health England to make clear the full extent of the error as soon as possible.

“What remains most important is that every single woman affected is identified and given all the information and support they need to make an informed decision about whether to attend catch-up screening where appropriate.

However Public Health England, the body responsible for administering the screening programme, said the analysis was "flawed". It told The Independent it was awaiting the findings of the independent review.

Professor John Newton, PHE director of health improvement, said: “This is a flawed analysis which fails to take into account some important facts, such as when the breast screening programme was rolled out to all 70-year-olds in England or when a clinical trial was started called Age X.

“Our top priority is making sure that all the women that did not receive an invitation for a screen are supported.

“The independent review will look at all aspects of the Breast Screening Service to identify any lessons PHE and the NHS can learn.”

Additional reporting by PA