FIRST ROUND RESULTS OF A LONG TERM POPULATION-BASED BREAST CANCER SCREENING PROGRAM FROM BAHCESEHIR

Introduction: The Bahcesehir Breast Cancer Screening Project is the first organized population based breast cancer screening project in Turkey. The objectives of this prospective observational study are to determine implementation of a population-based organized breast cancer screening program in Turkish women and to find out the effect of screening on stage shift.Materials and Methods: A total of 3758 women within 40–69 years of age were recruited in this prospective study. The screening was done biannually and five rounds were planned. After completing a clinical breast examination (CBE), two-view mammograms were obtained and classified according to Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) of the American College of Radiology (ACR). True positivity, false positivity, positive predictive values (PPV) according to ACR, cancer detection rate, minimal cancer detection rate, axillary node positivity and recall rate were calculated.Results: Seventeen cancers were detected in the first round. The overall cancer detection rate was 4.5 per 1000 women. Minimal cancer detection rate and axillary node positivity were 52.9 % and 11.7 %, respectively. A positive prediction for biopsy was 32%. The overall recall rate was 18.4 %.Discussion: These are the first round results of the screening project. Our results showed that screening can be done effectively in a population based organization.