Each year more than 2 million women have breast cancer screening in the UK.

As a doctor, who was involved in looking after breast cancer patients in London, I have had the privilege of attending to patients younger than 50 yrs who did not have any family history. 

The NHS Breast Screening Programme invites all women from the age of 50 to 70 for screening every 3 years. This means that some people may not have their first screening mammogram until they are 52 or 53 years.

The breast screening programme finds cancer in about 8 out of every 1,000 women having screening

Though, screening will not prevent people from getting breast cancer, it helps in finding the breast cancer early with greater chance at survival.

The current evidence suggests that breast screening reduces the number of deaths from breast cancer by about 1,300 a year in the UK.

Many more lives would be saved if screening is started early at 45 years.

Almost all women diagnosed with breast cancer at the earliest possible stage survive for at least 5 years after diagnosis and are likely to be cured.

The earlier we can detect the cancer, the higher the chances of survival.