Routine breast screening. Survival after 10.5 years follow-up.

Beginning in 1973, the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project at Georgia Baptist Medical Center screened 8058 supposedly asymptomatic volunteers. Those screenees found to have cancer were treated by various surgeons, using all types of treatment with varying expertise. There has been 100% follow-up after 10.5 years. The overall survival is 90.8%. The women over 50 in all categories survived longer than the younger age group. Those women with lesions 1 cm or smaller survived longer than those with larger lesions. The women whose tumor was not palpable clinically and was discovered by roentgenogram had the best survival rates (96.8%). In the less-than-50 age group whose cancer was detected by roentgenogram alone, 88.2% survived 10.5 years, while 100% of the older group is still living. These results do not consider the type of therapy nor the skill with which it was administered and is the result of routine screening only.