Breast cancer patients in check-up call

Published on Friday 18 January 2008 09:41

DOCTORS have recommended breast cancer patients be offered check-ups for life, after a damning report by a city consultant.

Michael Dixon, a consultant surgeon at the Edinburgh Breast Unit at the Western General hospital, claimed that aftercare in Scotland was a "postcode lottery".

The report in the British Medical Journal showed that patients' risk of suffering a relapse did not decrease over time and that the type of aftercare they received varied widely across the country.

The report has led to doctors calling for an urgent review of the advice on how breast cancer patients are screened for recurrences of the disease.

Currently, guidelines in Scotland set no official limit for follow-up checks, unlike in England where the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends women receive the checks for two or three years after they first fall ill.

Clinicians say that practice for breast cancer follow-ups in Scotland "varies widely" between health boards.