New age limits for screening program
The Ministry of Health is extending the age limits of the Fofi Gennimata Program for breast cancer screening. As part of new European guidelines, the program will be extended to women aged 45 to 74, compared to the current age group of 50 to 69.
The ministry is awaiting the official recommendation of the Public Health Experts Committee in order to proceed with the necessary technical procedures so that the sending of text messages for free mammograms, ultrasounds and clinical examinations can begin for the new beneficiaries by the beginning of next year at the latest.
The program currently targets 1.3 million women between the ages of 50 and 69. Through the use of this service, which has been utilized by over 300,000 women, more than 15,000 cases of breast cancer have been identified, most of them at an early stage.
Eirini Agapidaki, the deputy minister of health, told Kathimerini that visits by mobile mammography units to remote areas of the country where there is no digital mammography equipment available at public or private facilities (e.g. Evrytania, island regions, mountain villages of Crete etc) will begin in early November within the context of the program.
