NHS blunder leaves thousands at ‘very high risk’ of breast cancer after vital scans missed

ALMOST 1,500 women with "very high risk" of breast cancer have missed out on potentially life-saving MRI checks thanks to NHS mishap.

Health chiefs have sent letters to every woman affected, apologising for the failure, which dates back over two decades.

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All the 1,487 women impacted have been offered catch-up scans within the next three months, health secretary Victoria Atkins confirmed.

The clerical error applies to women who received radiotherapy above the waist to treat Hodgkin lymphoma between 1962 and 2003, when between the ages of 10 and 35.

Because of the type of treatment, this group is at increased risk of getting breast cancer, a disease diagnosed in around 55,500 British women each year.

Guidance published in 2003 ruled that women in this category need annual MRI checks, so to catch the disease early when survival rates are best. 

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Medics were asked to contact both previous and current patients who this would apply to, so they can be referred them for annual checks.

However, last year, NHS bosses were told that some women had never been invited.

Ministers were only informed of the blunder last month.

In a letter sent to health secretary, NHS England said it was taking the issue "very seriously"

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"The NHS will do everything possible to ensure these women will be offered appropriate screening, at speed, compassionately and respectfully which is tailored to their clinical history," they wrote.

In a ministerial statement, health minister Andrew Stephenson said: "NHS England wrote to a group of women who are at Very High Risk of breast cancer who have been eligible for annual MRI checks, but who may not have been routinely referred to the annual tests recommended in NHS guidance.

"A number of women who were eligible for more regular "annual" testing did not receive it.

"This was due to variable referral processes."

Delyth Morgan, chief executive at , said: "We’re deeply concerned that certain women known to be at a very high risk of breast cancer, have not been offered the vital screening that they are entitled to and would give them the best opportunity of detecting the disease early, when survival rates are almost 100 per cent.

"This news will undoubtedly cause huge anxiety for the women affected and their loved ones.

"It is vita lNHS England take swift action to ensure these women receive the screening and support they need.

"The government and NHS England must also urgently identify and address the underlying issues that caused this error and provide firm reassurance that such a failure will not happen again."

Third of women missed checks last year

It comes as cancer charity Breast Cancer Now warned that a third of women did not attend breast cancer screening last year, and hundreds of tumours are being missed.

Figures show only 65 per cent of invitations for over-50s in England were accepted in 2022-23, with 1.93million women attending out of 2.98m invited.

This was higher than the record low of 62 per cent in 2020 but still lower than every year before the Covid pandemic.

Only half of those invited for the first time attended their appointment

Meanwhile, thousands of women with breast cancer will be denied a life-extending drug after it was deemed too pricey for the NHS.

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The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence watchdog said the medicine Enhertu is not cost-effective at the cost demanded by pharmaceutical companies.

Trials suggested the drug can add six months of survival for women dying from breast cancer that has spread.