The National Health Screening Services Malta administers
the National Cancer Screening Register for the Maltese Islands, for Breast
Cancer, Colorectal
Cancer and Cervical Cancer screening. The National Screening Centre in
Malta was first set up in 2009 with the breast screening programme, followed by
the Colorectal cancer screening programme in 2012 and the cervical cancer
screening programme in 2015.
What are the aims of screening?
Health screening is an effective process whereby cancer can be detected early when there are still not yet any visible signs or symptoms of the disease. Detecting a condition early means getting the right treatment at the right time and this gives patients better control over their health.
What are the principles underlying a screening programme?
All the three existing screening services meet the below criteria which was adopted by the World Health Organization back in 1968, on what needs to be considered prior to implementing a population-based screening programme
- The condition should be an important health problem
- There should be a recognisable latent or early symptomatic stage
- The natural history of the condition, including development from latent to declared disease, should be adequately understood.
- There should be an accepted treatment for patients with recognised disease
- There should be a suitable test or examination that has a high level of accuracy
- The test should be acceptable to the population
- There should be an agreed policy on whom to treat as patients
- Facilities for diagnosis and treatment should be available
- The cost of screening (including diagnosis and treatment of patients diagnosed) should be economically balanced in relation to possible expenditure on medical care as a whole, and
- Screening should be a continuing process and not a ‘once and for all’ project.