The proportion of women in Scotland attending breast screeningappointments has gone down.
Seven in 10 take up the invitation compared with three-quarters of 50-70 year-olds a decade ago.
According to the latest figures for 2015-18, women from the most deprived areas are less likely to attend, with under 60% going for screening compared with almost 80% in the least deprived post codes. The pattern is reflected in other screening programmes.
Four NHS boards did not meet the 'minimum acceptable uptake standard' of 70%: Greater Glasgow and Clyde 65.8%, Lanarkshire 68, Lothian 69.2, and Fife 69.7.
Good news is that detection of invasive cancer is happening more frequently when the tumour is small (< 15mm), resulting in a better prognosis. The increased detection rate was 3.8 per 1000 women screened, the highest in recent years.
Scottish Bowel Screening Programme Statistics 1 November 2016 - 31 October 2018.