title: The epidemiological profile of women with an interval cancer in the DOM screening programme.
abstract: Risk factors for breast cancer were compared in 107 women with interval breast cancer (cancers occurring within 2 years after a negative screen) and 258 women with breast cancer detected at 1st screening. All women (aged 40-67) were screened in the DOM project (the Utrecht programme for the early detection of breast cancer). Women with an interval cancer reported more often a history of benign breast disease (OR 4.66, 95% C.I. 2.08-10.41) and an artificial menopause (OR 4.07; 95% C.I. 1.74-9.55) than women with a screen detected cancer. Women with an interval cancer were taller than women with a screen detected cancer; this was seen most clearly in women with an artificial menopause (chi 2 for trend = 5.88; p = 0.02) and to a lesser extent in premenopausal women (chi 2 for trend = 1.70; p = 0.19). Premenopausal women with an interval cancer were heavier than women with a screen detected cancer (chi 2 for trend = 4.66; p = 0.03); whereas natural postmenopausal women with an interval cancer were leaner than women with a screen detected cancer (chi 2 for trend = 1.57; p = 0.21). All analyses were done while correcting for age and selected other risk factors for breast cancer. These results suggest that the epidemiological profile of pre- and post-menopausal women with an interval cancer differs from that of women with a screen detected cancer, which might imply a different natural history of these two types of breast tumours.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Brekelmans
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Faber
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Deurenberg
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Collette
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D005348:Fibrocystic Breast Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008403:Mass Screening; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D017698:Postmenopause; D017697:Premenopause; D012044:Regression Analysis