Breast Cancer Early Detection Program

When you get an invitation for mammography, look at it as an Invitation to Life. The Israel Cancer Association invests immense efforts to continually develop and implement new and effective early detection programs. Among its efforts in this area, the ICA:

Initiates and implements nationwide screening programs that have been proven beneficial, and purchases advanced diagnostic systems.
Strives to raise public's awareness and compliance to undergo recommended examinations, through information & education programs for the general public, and also sees to providing training for health care personnel.

Breast cancer is Israel's most widespread malignant disease, affecting one in every 8 women in her lifetime.

But with early detection, approximately 90% of the women afflicted can be cured and here too, the ICA leads the fight against breast cancer, addressing the matter on all fronts.
ICA initiated the national mammography screening project and through ICA's "Invitation to Life" project, together with the Ministry of Health and Health Funds, women in the target age group are personally invited to undergo mammography examination.
The national mammography screening, along with ongoing information campaigns, helped significantly to raise the level of awareness and compliance with early detection.

To date, within the framework of this national program, over 5,200,000 examinations have been carried out. 72% of those diagnosed were in early stages of the disease with a very high chance for recovery.

ICA purchased a Mobile Mammography Unit, with the intent to improve accessibility in the peripheries and special sectors of the population in which compliance to undergo the examination is considerably low.
The mobile unit is available to women residing in remote areas and who are less aware of the importance of screening tests, such as in Arab villages and the geographical periphery where there is a high percentage of new immigrants, ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, etc.
The current data indicate a significant reduction in the gaps between these sectors since its operation.
The 2009 WHO survey of the European region revealed that Israel leads in mammography compliance rates in view of the narrowing disparities between different sectors of the population.
Based on data collected through the national mammography screening and quality assurance program financed by ICA, it has emerged that since the inception of the project, breast cancer early detection rates were significantly improved.
As a result, Israel is among the leading countries with the highest survival rates, and according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, since the inception of the nationwide screening program, mortality rates have decreased by 30% the last decade.

Thanks to the intensive efforts of the ICA in early detection there has been increased public awareness of the critical importance of screening tests for cancer.

Lili Biller Lev

Committees and Projects Manager