"Please come and have a screening. It's the difference between having a long, happy, healthy life, or a more complicated life of suffering," Graça Freitas said in a challenge launched during the ceremony that signaled the start of the national screening, which is expected to cover one million and 400,000 women over the next two years. "Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women in Portugal. It's very prevalent. In addition to the final outcome there is also a long journey of suffering. And this suffering, in fact, can be helped, as was said here by the Portuguese League Against Cancer, with an earlier diagnosis, at an earlier stage, which allows less invasive, less aggressive, less time-consuming interventions", she stressed.

The Director-General of Health spoke to journalists at the ceremony that signaled the start of breast cancer screening, organized by the Southern Regional Center of the Portuguese League Against Cancer (NRS-LPCC) in partnership with the Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley (ARSLVT), which has now been extended to the districts of Lisbon and Setúbal.

According to the chairman of the Board of the NRS-LPCC, Francisco Cavaleiro, the LPCC now has six new mobile units identical to the one that is currently installed in front of the Alcochete Health Center, for breast cancer screening, in the districts of Lisbon and Setúbal, which means that from now on screening is ensured throughout the national territory. Francisco Cavaleiro also revealed that the LPCC now has a total of 33 mobile units that are expected to allow breast cancer screening of 1.4 million women over the next two years, with the guarantee of all safety conditions, including the disinfection of such mobile units after each screening. The LPCC screen for breast cancer in almost the entire national territory, with the exception of the Algarve region and the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores.