Breast cancer screening controversy: too much or not enough?
Fiche publication
Date publication
juin 2015
Journal
European journal of cancer prevention : the official journal of the European Cancer Prevention Organisation (ECP)
Auteurs
Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Pr PIVOT Xavier
Tous les auteurs :
Pivot X, Viguier J, Touboul C, Morère JF, Blay JY, Coscas Y, Lhomel C, Eisinger F
Lien Pubmed
Résumé
The Cochrane analysis exploring the risk/benefit ratio of breast cancer screening resulted in a controversy worldwide spread by the mass media. Our survey sought to assess the impact of this controversy in terms of breast cancer screening awareness and attendance. A nationwide observational study, recorded in the EDIFICE iterative surveys, with a representative sample of 451 women aged 40-75 years, living in France, was carried out in the 3 months after the start of the controversy in January 2013. Of the 405 women with no personal history of cancer, 69 (17%) declared having heard of the controversy (aware group). Women remembering the controversy were more likely to belong to higher socioprofessional categories and to have a higher level of education. The most frequently remembered issues were overdiagnosis (38%), unreliability (16%) and radiation risk (9%). Compared with women who were unaware of the controversy, the aware group knew more about the limits of breast cancer screening (undiagnosed cancers, 20 vs. 7%, P<0.05 and risk of false positives, 20 vs. 2%, P<0.05) and were more likely to change their opinion for the worse over the mass media debate (8.7 vs. 1.2%, P<0.05). Nevertheless, only 1% of the aware-group declared their intention to subsequently undergo screening less frequently. The low impact of the controversy on the behaviour of women with respect to screening suggests that it should not be seen as a threat to screening attendance rates, but more as an opportunity to improve awareness.
Mots clés
Adult, Aged, Breast Neoplasms, diagnosis, Early Detection of Cancer, trends, Female, France, epidemiology, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Health Surveys, methods, Humans, Mammography, trends, Middle Aged, Time Factors
Référence
Eur. J. Cancer Prev.. 2015 Jun;24 Suppl:S73-6