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Guidance

Breast screening: very high risk women surveillance protocols

The NHS breast surveillance protocols for women at very high risk of developing breast cancer.

Updates to this page

From:
NHS England
Published:
1 June 2013
Last updated:
18 November 2025
Show all updates

  1. Updated referral form

  2. Updates to the referral form and guidance on the tests and frequency for women at very high risk to reflect changes to eligibility criteria for referral into the breast very high risk screening programme.

  3. Added a Microsoft Word version of the 'Breast screening referral form for women at very high risk' due to issues selecting tick boxes in the original ODT file.

  4. Added clarification that publication was previously published by Public Health England.

  5. The Breast screening referral form for women at very high risk has been updated.

  6. Minor amend in the 'Referrals by clinical genetics services or oncology centres' section of the HTML doc.

  7. Updated 'Protocols for the surveillance of women at higher risk of developing breast cancer' and the referral form to clarify: which cohort of women is entitled to very high risk screening following radiotherapy to sites involving breast tissue (formerly referred to as ‘supra-diaphragmatic radiotherapy’); the breast density review process; the interval to next screening appointment following a short term recall episode; screening during pregnancy and lactation; and screening transgender and non-binary people.

  8. New version of the breast screening referral form for women at very high risk. Expanded information requirements in section B.

  9. Updated 'Breast screening referral form for women at very high risk' following an update in the breast screening IT system.

  10. Change to the referral form for women at very high risk. Added a section about a woman’s previous history of breast surgery.

  11. Update to section 3, to include treating clinician referral to very high risk screening for patients carrying a genetic mutation meeting the eligibility criteria.

  12. Edited sections 6.1 – process before MRI screening and 6.2 – review of background diversity in the protocols document.

  13. Added note to the referral form that BARD are excluded from needing to sign the declaration.

  14. Minor changes to all 3 documents including clarification that women already in the VHR programme can continue to be screened until their 71st birthday.

  15. Amended very high risk referral form.

  16. Reviewed, updated and reformatted guidance as HTML format.

  17. Added updated referral form.

  18. Updated high-risk referral form.

  19. Added breast screening referral form.

  20. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

The Surveillance of women at very high risk of developing breast cancer

HTML

Eligibility criteria and screening protocols for women at very high risk of breast cancer

HTML

Breast screening referral form for women at very high risk

MS Word Document, 57.1 KB

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Details

Healthcare professionals working in the NHS breast screening programme should use these protocols.

They apply to women referred to the screening programme with a very high risk of developing breast cancer.

Complete the referral form when referring a woman to breast screening because she has been clinically identified as being at higher risk of developing breast cancer. It can be completed electronically or printed out and completed manually.

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