Background

Background

Health Canada's Organized Breast Cancer Screening Programs in Canada: 1997 & 1998 Report will be released on Friday, May 4, 2001 in Quebec City, at the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative, Second Scientific Conference - Reasons for Hope.

This document is the second in a series of biennial reports from Health Canada's Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Initiative. It illustrates the constant evaluation that organized breast cancer screening programs undergo to assure high standards are maintained in the provision of an effective service. It presents selected statistics for the 1997 and 1998 calendar years using data submitted by provincial screening programs to the Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Database.

Highlights

• Organized breast cancer screening programs began in British Columbia in 1988 and have since expanded to include all provinces, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

• Canadian organized breast cancer screening programs provide world-class service ensuring meticulous quality assurance practices are in place at all steps of the process.

• Organized programs allow Canadians to measure the performance of screening and to maximize its benefits.

• The Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Database is a national breast screening surveillance system that fosters collaboration in monitoring and evaluating organized breast cancer screening across Canada.

• Breast cancer screening, through organized programs, is effective in finding breast cancers at an early stage, often even before they can be felt or have spread to the lymph nodes.

• Regular breast cancer screening, through organized programs, plays a critical role in averting breast cancer deaths.

• The national recommendation is that provincially organized breast cancer screening programs actively screen women aged 50 to 69 every two years.

• Greater participation in organized screening programs by women aged 50 to 69 will bring the benefits of breast cancer screening to more Canadian women.

Key Statistics

• Overall, the 1997 and 1998 results show that organized breast cancer screening programs in Canada compare favourably with the standards set by other countries.

• During the past decade, provincially organized breast cancer screening programs have grown substantially, from a single program offering two-view mammographic screening to 9,371 eligible women in 1989, to nine organized programs screening a total of 470,876 women in 1998.

• Breast cancer continues to be the most common cancer among Canadian women and the second highest cause of cancer death in women, with 19,200 new cases and 5,500 deaths estimated for 2000.

• Nearly half of all new breast cancer cases occur among women aged 50 to 69 and it has been demonstrated that these women benefit the most from breast screening.

• Despite gains, provincial participation rates of women aged 50 to 69 in 1997 and 1998 ranged from 11.5% to 54.7%, below the recommended 70% participation rate.

• On a positive note, among women aged 50 to 69 who attended organized breast cancer screening programs, approximately 80% returned for their next screen within 2.5 years, an indicator of the acceptability of these programs.

• The benign:malignant biopsy ratio of 1.6:1.0 is appropriately low, indicating that screening is not causing unnecessary morbidity in healthy women.

• Among women screened within organized breast cancer screening programs, 8.1% were referred for additional assessment. For every 100 women with an abnormality found on screening, between six and seven women were subsequently diagnosed with cancer.

• A total of 3,975 cancers were detected for the screen years 1997 and 1998, of which 80.2% were invasive and 19.8% were ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

• Preventing breast cancer deaths through mammographic screening depends on detecting cancers early; of invasive cancers detected, 37.6% were <= 10 mm in diameter and 78.5% had not spread to the lymph nodes.

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