Share of women screened for breast cancer in Italy 2021-2022, by region

Between 2021 and 2022, about 70.4 percent of women aged 50 to 69 years in Italy had a mammogram. Preventive breast cancer screening through a mammogram every two years is most recommended for those aged 50 to 69 years. Between 2021 and 2022, breast cancer screening was much more common in the Northern Italian regions, with rates often above 80 percent.

Breast cancer screening over time

Before 2020, when COVID-19 hit Italy, the share of women between 50 and 69 years undergoing breast cancer screening at least once in the previous two years, had an increasing trend overall. However, the share of women who underwent preventive examinations for breast cancer after 2019 had a considerable decrease compared to the previous years. As a matter of fact, in 2019 the share of women with breast cancer screening amounted to 75.1 percent, while in 2020 it was 72.5 and in 2021 dropped to 68.8 percent.

Cervical cancer screening

In Italy, women between the ages of 25 and 64 years are recommended to do a cervical cancer screening every three years. Since 2008, the percentage of women aged 25 to 65 who underwent cervical cancer screening in the previous three years, fluctuated yearly from 75.2 to 81 percent. This peak was reached in 2019 and was followed by a steep decrease in 2020, in correspondence with the spread of COVID-19. Between 2021 and 2022, when the share of women with cervical cancer screening amounted to 77.8 percent in Italy, geographical differences could be observed across the country: among Northern regions, with 84.1 percent of women underwent this screening, while in Southern regions this share amounted to only 69.2 percent.