Some 76 per cent of women contacted by BreastCheck, the national breast screening programme, took up the invitation to have free breast screening, according to the body's annual report for 2002.
BreastCheck said today the figures showed an improvement on the 2000-2001 period and comfortably exceeded the international standard of 70 per cent.
Last year, 38,242 women attended BreastCheck clinics for screening and 306 (around 0.8 per cent) were found to have breast cancer. The simple mammogram x-ray conducted by BreastCheck is very successful in detecting early cancers, thereby increasing treatment rates and survival statistics.
During a 22-month period covering 2000-2001, 45,321 women were screened and 410 cancers detected. In 2002 BreastCheck increased its screening capacity by employing extra radiographers.
BreastCheck's director Mr Tony O'Brien, said the screening programme is proving to be an example of a high-quality public health sector service.
"The programme is multidisciplinary in nature, consultant delivered, highly quality assured and audited, free to clients and benchmarked against externally validated performance standards, with results published annually."
Mr O'Brien urged women to make sure they are on the BreastCheck register and to attend for breast screening, when screening is available in their area.
"At the time of the 2002 census the number of women aged 50-64 in our current screening area known to the population register was within 2 per cent of the census figure. While this endorses our register as highly accurate, we can improve this further by women calling us at freephone 1800 45 45 55, and making sure they are on our database."
BreastCheck began screening in the Eastern Regional Health Authority, North Eastern and Midland Health Board areas in February 2000.
A plan to extend the programme nationally was approved by the Minister for Health earlier this year and the roll-out of the service is currently being developed.