CLINICAL OUTCOMES OF THE OTAGO-SOUTHLAND BREAST-CANCER SCREENING-PROGRAM 1991-1996

Aim. To document the clinical outcome of the Otago-Southland Breast Ca ncer Screening Programme through its first two rounds of screening, fr om 1991-1996. Methods. Review and analysis of clinical and pathologica l records. Results. In the first round of screening, 13 876 women were screened, giving 75% uptake; 12.2% were referred for assessment and 1 26 cancers detected, 9.1 per thousand women screened. For the 9946 inc idence screens in the second round, 3.9% of women screened were referr ed to assessment and 50 cancers detected, 5.0 per thousand women scree ned. The uptake and cancer detection rates exceed the targets and exce ed other published results; the size distribution of the cancers detec ted was comparable to the Swedish two-counties study, showing that the results should produce an ultimate mortality reduction. The referral rate to assessment was higher than expected in the first round of scre ening, but within the targeted range in the second round. The benign t o malignant ratio for all biopsies was 1.4:1 for the prevalence screen of the first round and 1.2:1 for the incidence screens in the second round, both exceeding the targets set. Conclusions. The results show t hat the uptake and clinical results of the programme exceed expectatio ns and that a large number of small invasive tumours have been success fully detected. These results are comparable to the best of overseas s tudies, and give confidence that mortality reductions will ultimately occur.