Coronavirus: About 850 women awaiting breast cancer screening

There are 850 women awaiting breast cancer screening in Northern Ireland, BBC News NI has learned.

Charity Action Cancer said they were due to be seen in March before the coronavirus lockdown.

The service will take at least six weeks to clear when it resumes in August.

The charity offers mammograms to women aged 40-49, and over 70 - those outside the NHS screening programme age brackets.

Val Nugent was one of those whose appointment was postponed.

"Initially I was worried how long the cancellation was going to be, and the backlog," she said.

"But it's something obviously that, before the year would go out, that I would like to have ticked off my box.

"That every two years this has happened and you know, everything has hopefully been routine and getting the letter back to say everything's fine.

Val Nugent had her mammogram appointment postponed

"So yes, whilst services weren't active it does sit in the back of your mind, wondering when it's going to be."

A mammogram is recommended every two years.

"We like people to keep those routines," said consultant radiographer Joanna Currie.

"Those women have now been delayed for several months, so while we're very fortunate with breast screening that we're catching things fairly early before women know they have symptoms, about six out of every thousand women that we x-ray are diagnosed with a breast cancer.

"So for the majority of people it is a message of reassurance and that is just as important as anything else."

'Extremely worrying'

The NI Cancer Registry also reports there could be up to 800 people with cancer who have yet to be diagnosed.

It has described the data as "extremely worrying".

Dr Anna Gavin from the Registry told BBC News NI: "We are urging the public to come forward if concerned.

"We're particularly worried about some of the cancers that have a poor prognosis.

"So for example, lung cancer if it is caught early has a good outcome, but the longer it is left the poorer the outcome, and we see that with all cancers, so we would be urging people that if they have any symptom that they're worried about - a lump, weight loss or difficulty swallowing, blood in either their urine or their poo - that they actually come forward to their GP.

"The service is open, and we really want people to come and have their cancer diagnosed as early as possible," she added.

Consultant radiographer Joanna Currie said it is good for women to have a mammogram every two years

The NI Cancer Registry's research found that since the beginning of March, the number of cancer patients being diagnosed is one third lower than in the previous three years.

In the five weeks up to 16 May, diagnoses were down by 41%.

This means an estimated 700 to 800 people with cancer have not yet been diagnosed compared to previous years.

Coronavirus impact

Dr Gavin said the pausing of services due to coronavirus has had a detrimental impact.

"The screening services have been stopped, dental referrals have been stopped and we've seen big reductions in the numbers of cancers diagnosed, more so in older people than in younger people, but cancer's more common in older people.

"We've seen it particularly for those cancers that are picked up with screening: breast cancer 56%, bowel cancer almost the same, and in the screen age group, the number of cases that have been diagnosed has fallen to almost zero."

Other news is encouraging.

There are signs that prostate cancer diagnoses is recovering.

It is thought that could be related to work being carried out by the private sector.

Dr Gavin said the "health service was not able to cope" with the number of people coming forward with "with cancer, with heart disease, with stroke" before the pandemic.

She said Covid-19 has demonstrated the service "can only really do one thing".

"It can either deal with a pandemic or it can just about deal with the services that are required," she continued.