Breast cancer screening: characteristics and results of the Spanish programs

Background and objective: To describe national and regional indicators of process and outcome of breast cancer screening programs in Spain. Patients and method: Overall results and broken down by regions are studied for the period 2007-2008. Outcome indicators (participation, cancer detection rate and characteristics of tumors detected) and process indicators (and intermediate mammograms), classified by types of women screened (initial and consequent regular and irregular) and age groups, are analyzed. Results are compared with reference values established in the European Guidelines. Results: Breast cancer screening coverage is 100% in the country. The overall participation was 69.68% with an adherence of 91.35%. Further assessments of any procedure were performed in 4.93% and invasive further assessments in 0.66%. Intermediate mammograms were indicated in 3.56%. The detection rate was 3.49%. (5.35%. age-adjusted); 14.29% of the tumors were intraductal. The 29.49% of the invasive tumors were <= 1 cm in diameter with 62.22% showing no axillary lymph node involvement. Conclusions: Despite the variability evident in the data provided by the different autonomous communities and the need to improve the homogeneity of information systems as a whole, the assessed indicators meet the standards specified in the European guidelines.(C) 2011 Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.