WAQ79177 (e) Tabled on 29/11/2019

What action is the Welsh Government taking to raise awareness of male breast cancer and how to check for symptoms?

Answered by Minister for Health and Social Services | Answered on 11/12/2019

We appreciate the importance of people recognising significant or prolonged changes in their health, and the need for people to be willing to present to a healthcare professional for investigation. However, the Welsh Government has no plans to introduce a symptom awareness campaign for male breast cancer as this is unlikely to be an effective way of diagnosing more early stage cancer or reducing health inequalities for cancer.

Our current focus is on enabling good referral practice from primary care and more timely access to diagnostic investigations. We are seeing very significant increases in the number of people being referred by their GP as suspected cancer and this demonstrates that more people are being investigated, at a lower level of risk, in the interests of identifying more cancers, at earlier more treatable stages.