Mr. Martin O'Sullivan:

It is important to say that while family history is very important for the women who have a strong family history, it is not a big contributor to breast cancer in general. Less than 10% of breast cancers are related to family history. Some people might believe that this figure is less than 5%. To put that in context, there are a few issues we need to look at. For example, alcohol intake, weight gain, obesity and hormone replacement therapy, HRT, all increase risk of breast cancer and are probably far more important factors than family history. On the other hand, a regular exercise and dietary regime would reduce the risk. These issues are really important because they are what we call modifiable risk factors. People cannot do anything about your family history but they have control over things like maintaining a healthy weight, alcohol intake, HRT and so on.

The second thing in terms of family history is that it is worthwhile distinguishing between the BreastCheck programme Professor Flanagan has been talking about, which is probably best termed screening, and family history, which refers to looking at people who are at above average risk for developing a disease such as breast cancer. It is probably more appropriate to call that surveillance. It helps to distinguish between the two so that there is no confusion.