The BBC's Fergus Walsh on breast cancer screening

The annual review of the NHS Breast Screening Programme, which began in 1988 and covers women aged between 50 and 64, says that breast cancer screening in the UK has been proven to save lives.

It says the service saw more women than ever before and the programme is on target to save 1,250 lives per year.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in westernised countries and accounts for 20% of all female cancers.

It is estimated that one in 11 British women will develop breast cancer at some time in their life.

A patient's chance of survival is high if the disease is diagnosed early on.

Critics have attacked the programme for targeting much-needed resources on a single disease.

But the review suggests that the scheme does save lives by picking up the cancer at a treatable stage.

Key findings

The report reveals that in 1996-97, more and smaller cancers were found than ever before:

• 1,268,236 women over the age of 50 were screened for breast cancer
• 7,141 cancers were found among these women - 5.6 per 1,000 screened
• 3,156 of the cancers were smaller than 15mm in size, an increase of 12% on 1995-96 figures
• 1,471 of the cancers had not spread beyond the breast ducts, an increase of 7% on 1995-96 figures.

It also reveals that 62% of the cancers diagnosed were diagnosed without open biopsy, where tissue has to be removed from the breast under general anaesthetic and sent to a lab for analysis.

In these women a single operation was enough to deal with the cancer.

Maturing programme

High-profile campaigns supported by Cherie Blair, the prime minister's wife, ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and Sir Paul McCartney have encouraged women to attend breast cancer screening sessions.

The review found that the nature of the screening programme had changed over its 10-year history in that women now return for regular screenings.

It is also developing its techniques of measuring its success rate, allowing researchers to calculate how many lives the programme actually saves.

The programme costs £47m a year - supporters say that works out at about £34 for every woman checked.

Julietta Patnick: women who are screened are 40% less at risk from breast cancer

Julietta Patnick of the National Breast Screening Programme said statistics showed women who were screened for breast cancer were at 40% less risk of dying from the disease.

She said: "We reckon that 1,250 women a year will live another 20 years because of screening. They will be around for their families and their grandchildren and will not die in middle age."

New technology

One of the medical advances which has helped doctors detect cancers at an earlier stage is the x-ray guided biopsy machine.

There are just two in the UK, while other European countries have many more.

Dr Michael Michell, a consultant radiologist at King's College Hospital in London, said: "We can tell with a great deal of certainty whether they [abnormalities] are due to small cancers in which case we can discuss with the patient what sort of treatment to have and if it is not, we can reassure the woman who will not require further intervention or surgery."

The Cancer Research Campaign said the review was good news, but added that measures still needed to be taken to improve breast cancer diagnosis and care.

Dr Michael Michell: new machines allow 'great certainty' in detecting cancers

Head of Clinical Information Kate Law said: "The quality control aspects of the whole programme have improved with time so there are fewer mistakes and there's better detection of the smaller lumps."

However, regardless of the efficiency of the screening programmes, there would always be cancers that spread rapidly, she said.

"The treatment side comes into play as well - we're still not very good at treating cancer once it has spread.

"As well as a good screening programme we need more effective treatment."