The Irish Cancer Society said just 2pc of 500 women quizzed in a telephone poll were knowledgeable about the links between age and the disease which will affect one in eleven females.

The findings emerged at the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month which this year is aimed at highlighting the need for older women over the age of 50 years to have routine mammograms (x-rays).

Three-quarters of breast cancer cases are in women over the age of 50 years and more than one-third are diagnosed in over 65 year-olds.

Only 37pc of women in the older age group say they are checking for changes in skin and nipple or size and shape of the breast. More than one in two believe family history is the biggest risk factor but this is just the cause in around 5pc to 10pc of cases, according to Naomi Fitzgibbon of Action Breast Cancer. Other risk factors are early menstruation or late menopause, not having children or having a first child after the age of 30 years.

"These are factors women have no control over -- other so-called lifestyle risk factors include obesity, lack of physical activity and alcohol consumption," she said.

Key prevention messages to women is be a healthy weight, be active, enjoy exercise and eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.

There were 2,379 cases of the disease diagnosed in Ireland in 2005 and 27 of these were men.

Age Action Ireland yesterday endorsed the call to scrap the upper age limit on the BreastCheck programme in view of the latest figures which show it is resulting in hundreds of cases going undetected.

One-in-three breast cancer cases diagnosed in 2005 would not have been detected by the scheme because of the existing age restriction, warned spokesman Eamonn Timmins.