2023-08-20 14:27:45
health breast cancer prevention
Mammography screening is now available to women over 70 years of age
Status: 2:27 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Medical workers examine a woman’s breast for breast cancer during a mammography screening
Source: Hannibal Hanschke/dpa
For women between the ages of 50 and 69 it is one of the unpleasant mandatory appointments: the mammography examinations to detect breast cancer foci as early as possible. Older women will soon be entitled to it.
In the future, women between the ages of 70 and 75 should also be entitled to a mammography screening every two years to prevent breast cancer. The age limit should be extended upwards, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA). First, the newspapers of the Funke media group reported about it.
With around 70,000 new cases each year in Germany, breast cancer (mammary carcinoma) is by far the most common cancer in women.
From the summer of 2024, an additional 2.5 million women will be eligible, said doctor and G-BA member Monika Lelgemann to the Funke newspapers. The prerequisite is that by then the missing statutory ordinance of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection with the approval of the extended screening under radiation protection law is available. On behalf of the legislator, the G-BA designs the entitlement to benefits of those with statutory health insurance.
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The X-ray examinations of the breast are paid for by the statutory health insurance companies. So far, however, only 50- to 69-year-olds are usually entitled to the screening – also every 2 years.
According to the spokeswoman, the G-BA intends to make the decision that in future 70 to 75-year-olds should also have mammography paid for in a public meeting on September 21.
But such a change is complex: the aim is for the women to be written to and invited. Before that, women of the appropriate age group can request an appointment themselves. “Such an appointment is possible at the earliest 22 months after the last mammography and after the start of the transition period on July 1, 2024,” explained the G-BA spokeswoman.
Breast Cancer and Radiation Therapy
chemotherapy and radiotherapy
Incidentally, it is also being considered that younger women should also be entitled to a mammography in the future. This then applies to the age group of 45 to 49 year olds. It is also important in the assessments, for example, whether the benefit outweighs the radiation risk. A decision on extending the age limit downwards will therefore only be made later.
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