Screening practice and misplaced priorities.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate cancer screening coverage among a large sample of Greek individuals.


METHODS
7012 adults from 30 Hellenic areas were surveyed. Tests included: faecal occult blood test, sigmoidoscopy,chest X-ray, urine test, testicular examination,trans-rectal ultrasound, full blood count, skin examination,digital rectal examination, PSA, Pap test, mammography,clinical breast examination (CBE), self breast examination and breast ultrasound.


RESULTS
Eighty-eight percent of males and 93% of females declared being interested in cancer screening; 37.8% of men and 37.9% of women had had a medical consultation for screening purpose in the previous 2 years. Less than 2%reported having received screening for colorectal cancer or skin malignancies. Screening for cervical cancer, mammography and CBE was reported by 39.6%, 22.8% and 27.9% of females respectively. Twenty percent of males reported screening for prostate cancer.


CONCLUSIONS
The actual opportunistic screening approach presents important deficiencies with displaced priorities in test performance and a low proportion of individuals undergoing recommended tests.
Mauri
Davide
D
Department of Medical Oncology, General Hospital of Lamia, Lamia, Greece. pacmer_science@yahoo.com
Valachis
Antonis
A
Polyzos
Nikolaos P
NP
Cortinovis
Ivan
I
Karampoiki
Vassiliki
V
Loukidou
Evridiki
E
Alevizaki
Paraskevi
P
Kamposioras
Konstantinos
K
Kouris
Georgios
G
Alexandropoulou
Parthenopi
P
Tsali
Lamprini
L
Panou
Charalampos
C
Stamatelopoulos
Athanasios
A
Lakiotis
Velisarios
V
Spiliopoulou
Anastasia
A
Terzoudi
Aikaterini
A
Ioakimidou
Aliki
A
Karathanasi
Ioanna
I
Bristianou
Magdalini
M
Casazza
Giovanni
G
Pavlidis
Nicholas
N
D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010358:Patient Participation; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis