Breast cancer screening programmes in 22 countries: current policies, administration and guidelines

source: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/5/735.full.pdf
cache: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B86b-ALn-1MGdlBybU0tUWVnOWM/edit?usp=sharing

Background

Currently there are at least 22 countries worldwide where national, regional or
pilot population-based breast cancer screening programmes have been established. A collaborative effort has been undertaken by the International Breast
Cancer Screening Network (IBSN), an international voluntary collaborative
effort administered from the National Cancer Institute in the US for the purposes
of producing international data on the policies, funding and administration, and
results of population-based breast cancer screening.


Methods

Two surveys conducted by the IBSN in 1990 and 1995 describe the status of
population-based breast cancer screening in countries which had or planned to
establish breast cancer screening programmes in their countries. The 1990 survey
was sent to ten countries in the IBSN and was completed by nine countries. The
1995 survey was sent to and completed by the 13 countries in the organization
at that time and an additional nine countries in the European Network.


Results

The programmes vary in how they have been organized and have changed from
1990 to 1995. The most notable change is the increase in the number of countries
that have established or plan to establish organized breast cancer screening
programmes. A second major change is in guidelines for the lower age limit for
mammography screening and the use of the clinical breast examination and
breast self-examination as additional detection methods.


Conclusion

As high quality population-based breast cancer screening programmes are implemented in more countries, they will offer an unprecedented opportunity to assess
the level of coverage of the population for initial and repeat screening, evaluation
of performance, and, in the longer term, outcome of screening in terms of
reduction in the incidence of late-stage disease and in mortality.


Keywords

Breast cancer, screening, population-based, database, guidelines, policies

Accepted 4 January 1998