Cancer Screening Programmes in Scotland
The purpose of cancer screening is to detect cancers early therefore allowing treatment to start sooner, leading to more successful outcomes. As with all screening programmes, cancer screening is offered to individuals who do not necessarily perceive they are at risk of, or are already affected by the diseases.
In Scotland there are two established cancer screening programmes for breast cancer and cervical cancer. A pilot bowel cancer screening programme has been running in Fife, Grampian and Tayside since 2000 and is being phased in nationally from June 2007.
The UK National Screening Programme assesses proposed new screening programmes against a set of internationally recognised criteria covering the condition, the test, the treatment options and effectiveness and acceptability of the screening programme. Assessing programmes in this way is intended to ensure that they do more good than harm at a reasonable cost.
The Scottish Breast and Cervical Screening National Advisory Group advises Ministers and the Scottish Executive Health Department on clinical and policy matters related to the implementation and development of the national breast and cervical screening programmes. The detailed remit and membership of this group and the minutes of their previous meetings can be found in the useful links section below.
Limitations of Screening
Screening has important ethical differences from clinical practice as the health service is targeting apparently healthy people, offering to help individuals to make better informed choices about their health. However, there are risks involved and it is important that people have realistic expectations of what a screening programme can deliver.
Whilst screening has the potential to save lives or improve quality of life through early diagnosis of serious conditions, it is not a fool-proof process. Screening can reduce the risk of developing a condition or its complications but it cannot offer a guarantee of protection. In any screening programme, there is an irreducible minimum of false positive results (wrongly reported as having the condition) and false negative results (wrongly reported as not having the condition).