Austrian breast cancer screening a success:

The steady fall in the number of women dying from breast cancer in Austria over the past 10 years is a result of effective early detection and improved therapy, says the Vienna regional sickness fund (WGKK). Vienna introduced screening of women between the ages of 50-70 under the auspices of the WGKK, the Viennese doctors' chamber and the Vienna council, in 2001. The screening added to earlier measures that saw the three-year survival rate, which was some 15% in the 1970s, reach 61% by the end of the 1990's, it claims. The five-year rate has also risen from 10-40% over the same period. 18 Viennese women contract breast cancer and eight die from the disease per week, on average.