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SCREENING FOR BREAST CANCER – THE UK APPROACH
Author(s) -
Bundred N. J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
anz journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.426
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 1445-1433
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.2007.04114_21.x
Subject(s) - medicine , mammography , breast cancer , breast cancer screening , cancer , workload , breast screening , family medicine , gynecology , computer science , operating system
In the United Kingdom the Forest Report in 1985 recommended the setting up of breast screening with women aged 50–64 years screened every 3 years by single view mammography. Since 2000 the screening process has been increased to women aged 50–70 years and the screening every 3 years is now with two view mammography, producing a 40% expansion in workload. Screening for breast cancer was funded centrally with allocation to each region and regional and national quality assurance centres were set up for both surgery, pathology and radiology. The programme is dependant on a high compliance rate with a low recall rate and a high cancer detection rate. It is carried out by a combination of mobile vans and static site for screening. Around 5% of women are recalled to the assessment clinics and 16% of these will have cancer (CF symptomatic practice where 6% have cancer). Survival rates in screening programmes of those patients who attend is 90.2% at 10 years whereas for non‐attendees it is 52% survival from diagnosed breast cancer. The cancer detection rate per 1,000 women has gone up regularly from inception such that last year it was 8 cancers detected per 1,000 women screened, with a total of 14,040 cancers detected in the screening programme in the UK. The development of breast screening centres led to the development of breast specialisation in pathology surgery and radiology across the UK and has had a major impact in the multidisciplinary management of breast cancer and the improvement in overall survival.