BREAST-CANCER SCREENING PROGRAMS IN 22 COUNTRIES - CURRENT POLICIES, ADMINISTRATION AND GUIDELINES

Background Currently there are at least 22 countries worldwide where n ational, regional or pilot population-based breast cancer screening pr ogrammes have been established. A collaborative effort has been undert aken by the International Breast Cancer Screening Network (IBSN), an i nternational voluntary collaborative effort administered from the Nati onal Cancer Institute in the US for the purposes of producing internat ional data on the policies, funding and administration, and results of population-based breast cancer screening. Methods Two surveys conduct ed by the IBSN in 1990 and 1995 describe the status of population-base d breast cancer screening in countries which had or planned to establi sh breast cancer screening programmes in their countries. The 1990 sur vey was sent to ten countries in the IBSN and was completed by nine co untries. The 1995 survey was sent to and completed by the 13 countries in the organization at that time and an additional nine countries in the European Network.Results The programmes vary in how they have been organized and have changed from 1990 to 1995. The most notable change is the increase in the number of countries that have established or p lan to establish organized breast cancel screening programmes. A secon d major change is in guidelines for the lower age limit for mammograph y screening and the use of the clinical breast examination and breast self-examination as additional detection methods. Conclusion As high q uality population-based breast cancer screening programmes are impleme nted in more countries, they will offer an unprecedented opportunity t o assess the level of coverage of the population for initial and repea t screening, evaluation of performance, and, in the longer term, outco me of screening in terms of reduction in the incidence of late-stage d isease and in mortality.