[Systematic screening for breast cancer in Rhone].

OBJECTIVE

As systematic breast cancer screening is progressively being implemented on a nationwide basis in France, we would like to describe the first population based breast cancer screening programme that started in the Rhône departement in 1987.

METHOD

All women aged 50 to 70 living in the Rhône are invited for single-view mammography every three years. Mammograms are done using the existing facilities by one of the 120 radiologists of the department qualified for screening for the program. All screens undergo double reading organized by l'Association des Radiologues du Rhône pour le Dépistage des Maladies du Sein (ARRADEMAS). The result of the test is given to the woman and her primary care doctor or gynaecologist who initiates the assessment of screen detected abnormalities. Evaluation and monitoring of the programme are based on the combined data of the screening information center and the local breast cancer registry.

RESULTS

Available data, seven years after the beginning of the programme, already show that its main short term measures are satisfactory: recent data show an acceptance rate of 50% and a recall rate of about 8%. At the prevalent screen, biopsy rate is 1.3% and detection rate 6 per 1000. Moreover, the programme information system has achieved its target in enabling us to collect data on all breast cancer cases occurring not only in women screened but in the whole population invited to screening.