Breast cancer screening as public health policy in Finland.
A nationwide mammographic screening for breast cancer was started in Finland in 1987. During the first 2 years of the organised screening programme, 126,000 women were invited. Most of them (103,000) belonged to the birth year cohort in the 50-59 years' age groups. Among the 112,000 screenees, 418 cancers (0.4%) were found. Specificity of the test was about 96%. The screening prevalence was 2.4 times the annual incidence and a minimum estimate for the detection rate among those invited was 1.6 times that among those not invited. These estimates indicate a relatively low test and programme sensitivity. The final effectiveness of a public health policy cannot be predicted on the basis of limited preventive trials, and there is need to evaluate also a public health policy by experimental means.
Finnish Cancer Registry, Helsinki, Tampere, Finland.
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M
Hakama
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L
Elovainio
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R
Kajantie
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K
Louhivuori
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008327:Mammography; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011634:Public Health