While the participation rate dropped to 44 % in 2024, far from the European target of 70 %, the health authorities are alarmed. For many women, being tested remains a logistical constraint, a course strewn with obstacles between waiting times, distant centers and busy schedule. Faced with this reality, new solutions are emerging.
Why screening remains so difficult for women
According to an IFOP survey carried out in August 2025 for the League against Cancer, 77 % of women aged 50 to 74 would like to be able to carry out their screening in mobile units installed as close as possible to their daily lives. A revealing figure: almost one in five women renounce her mammography, judging the examination too restrictive. The reasons mentioned range from work organization to the removal of the centers, including deadlines too long to obtain an appointment.
Contrary to popular belief, they are very little to invoke a lack of motivation. Only 5 % admit to having had “La Flemme”, 3 % say they have procrastinated and 2 % were skeptical. In reality, the difficulty of access weighs much heavier in the scale.
For Philippe Bergerot, president of the league against cancer, it is urgent to adapt prevention to realities on the ground: “Detected in time, breast cancer is treated in 9 cases out of 10, proof if the organized screening had to save lives. The question that arises is now to adjust it to the constraints of our society to make it more accessible to women, closer to their concerns, and more adapted to their needs in order to guarantee its role in the prevention of cancers. Today, women have to come and have been tested, what if screening came tomorrow? “.
Mobile units to make screening more universal
To meet this request, the Cancer League is preparing an unprecedented initiative. As early as 2026, six screening van baptized “over the league” will cross France to reach the isolated territories. This device aims to bring the examination of women who are privately closer to it, for lack of means or proximity. This project could have emerged thanks to the exceptional generosity of the Zevent 2024. It is part of a broader will: to completely rethink the national screening strategy, deemed too rigid and too far from the real needs of women.
Such meaning already exist in different departments such as in Hérault, in Eure … with a mammobile.
A digital tool to simplify the procedures
In parallel, the National Cancer Institute (Inca) launched the site “Jefaismondepistage.fr”. The purpose of this tool is to lift one of the main brakes: the complexity of the appointment. In a few clicks, the women concerned can now find a center, choose a niche and organize themselves more easily.
Combined with the arrival of mobile league units, this platform could restore confidence and above all restore time to women. The objective is clear: to reverse the trend and to ensure that France finally reaches the 70 % of recommended participation at European level.