In 2018, the proportion of women aged 50-69 years who had been screened for breast cancer using a mammography within the previous two years differed greatly among member states.

Based on screening programmes, seven member states had breast cancer screening rates below 50%. The lowest rates were recorded in Bulgaria, 21%, Slovakia, 30% and Cyprus with 33%.

Three member states reported breast cancer screening rates over 75%, Finland (84%), Denmark (83%) and the Netherlands (77%).

Compared with 2013 the rates of breast cancer screening increased between 2013 and 2018 for nine of the 20 EU countries for which data are available. The largest increases were recorded in Lithuania (+11.6 percentage points (pp)), Latvia (+7.9 pp) and Malta (+7.1 pp).

Cyprus is one of the countries where screening increased, from 31.7% in 2013 to 33% in 2018.

However, it peaked in 2016 with 35.2% and has since declined.
In the 11 member states where screening rates fell, the reductions were usually relatively small, with most notable decreases in Slovenia, -8.3 percentage points, and Germany, -7.2 percentage points.

Source: Cyprus Mail