Mammographic screening has failed to improve pathohistological characteristics of breast cancers in Split region of Croatia.

The national breast cancer screening program has been introduced in Croatia in the second half of 2006 with mammography as the screening method. We investigated the impact of screening mammography on the basic pathohistological characteristics of breast cancers retrieved from the database of large community hospital. The data were collected in the period following the initiation of national mamographic screening program (2007-2011), and compared with the data collected in the period before the program introduction (2002-2006) to explore the possible changing trends. In the screening period 1,320 breast cancers were diagnosed, while in the prescreening period 1,204 breast cancers were diagnosed (p=0.02). We found the reduction of mean tumor size (p=0.039), decrease of the diagnosed non-invasive cancers (p=0.001), and the higher percentage of the diagnosed ductal (p=0.0003) and grade 3 (p=0.038) invasive cancers in the screening period. We also noticed higher percentage of diagnosed advanced breast cancers with unknown tumor size in the screening period (p=0.027). We concluded that the implementation of national screening program did not improve the pathohistological features of breast cancers in our region probably due to low response rate to screening invitation.