Influx to breast cancer detection is below expectations in the South region, says Liga

Participation in breast cancer screenings that began four months ago in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area is below expectations, an official from the Portuguese League Against Cancer (LPCC) told Lusa.

According to LPCC data, between January 1 and June 1 of this year, 448,777 women from the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon and the Setúbal Peninsula were invited to undergo screening, 143,940 (32.7%) attendedof which 659 were diagnosed with breast cancer.

In the same period, in the northern region of the country, 406,608 women were invited, 264,703 (65.1%) attendedwith 2,165 diagnosed cancers and 169,749 in the Central region, with 115,548 (68.07%) screened, with 642 diagnosed cancers.

The director of health projects for the Southern Regional Center of the LPCC, Marta Pojo, told Lusa that one explanation for the low participation in screening is the “women’s lack of knowledge” about screening in this region.

From our point of view, there is a lack of knowledge on the part of women who do not know that they have this opportunity. And those who already did opportunistic screening do not know the great advantage of doing this population screening, which offers far fewer false results”, in addition to reducing the economic burden for the National Health System.

The official highlighted the fundamental role of family doctors in promoting this action. “They have been an important link and have been supportive, the problem is that there are many women without a family doctor in these large areas.”

To do the tracking, the women, between 50 and 69 years old, only have to go to an LPCC unitwhose location is available on the League website.

Marta Pojo explained that in order to undergo this screening, women cannot have had a mammogram less than six months ago, never have had cancer and not have breast implants.

“Portugal has been one of the countries with the highest breast cancer survival rate for five years and one of the reasons is because of this organized screening that finally reaches more than 400,000 women,” says Marta Pojo.