People in deprived areas ‘less likely to attend breast cancer screenings’

There is a lower uptake of breast cancer screening in more socioeconomically deprived parts of the country, according to a new Public Health England (PHE) report.

Researchers from PHE and King's College London studied the records of 159,000 women in London aged between 50 and 52 to see how many attended their first routine breast cancer screening appointment between 2006 and 2009.

The most notable discrepancy was seen in south-east London, with only 59 percent of women in the most deprived areas attending their screening appointment, compared to 73 percent in the most affluent parts.

It was also shown that rates of breast cancer did not change in relation to socioeconomic deprivation between 2000 and 2004, but increased among poorer people in 2005 to 2009.

Lead author Ruth Jack, an epidemiologist from PHE London, said: "We need to make sure that things like cost of travel and having time away from work aren't making it harder for women from more deprived areas to go for screening."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer type in the UK, with about 48,000 women affected by the condition in Britain each year.