What should be done about interval breast cancers?

BMJ 1995;310:203-204 (28 January)

Editorials

What should be done about interval breast cancers?

Two view mammography and possibly a shorter screening interval

The paper by Woodman and colleagues in this week's journal containsthe first published data from the NHS breast screening programmeon cancers diagnosed in the three years after a negative screen("interval cancers") (p 224).¹ It reports 15.8 interval cancersper 10000 women screened in the North West region in the 24months after screening, which is higher than the target thatwas set for Britain. Preliminary data from 46 screening centres,collected by the National Breast Screening Radiology QualityAssurance Committee, are very similar, suggesting that the NorthWest region is representative of the United Kingdom as a whole.

Comparing rates of interval cancer with those reported in theliterature is difficult because different groups have reportedthe data using different methods and the populations studiedhave different age compositions. The rates reported today, however,are higher than the . . . [Full text of this article]

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