title: Mammography screening in three Finnish residential areas: comprehensive population-based study of breast cancer incidence and incidence-based mortality 1976-2009.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a large-scale screening programme for breast cancer (BC) in Turku, Finland. Incidence and incidence-based mortality (IBM) figures were compared with the areas applying different screening policies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Deaths and person-time of women aged 40-84 were assessed for the period 1976-1986 (prescreening era) and the periods 1987-1997 and 1998-2009 (screening periods) using incidence and IBM by age at diagnosis and at death. There was a total of 40.7 million women-years, 83 497 invasive BCs obtained from the Finnish Cancer Registry; 17 508 BC deaths were linked with the data from Statistics Finland.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In Turku, a significant (> 20%) reduction in IBM occurred during 1987-2009 among women aged 60-74 years at diagnosis compared with Helsinki (IBMRR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.57-1.00), and in women aged 75-84 years at death compared with the rest of Finland (IBMRR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.53-0.96).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The wide mammography screening programme in Turku was effective in decreasing BC mortality in the elderly age groups. These results support the implementation of BC screening from age 50 up to 74 years.
authors: University of Turku, Medical Faculty, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland.
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Parvinen
authors: Finnish Cancer Registry, Unioninkatu 22, FI-00130 Helsinki, Finland.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Heinävaara
authors: Finnish Cancer Registry, Unioninkatu 22, FI-00130 Helsinki, Finland.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Anttila
authors: University of Turku, Medical Faculty, Department of Biostatistics, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland.
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Helenius
authors: University of Turku, Medical Faculty, Department of Pathology, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland.
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Klemi
authors: 1] University of Turku, Medical Faculty, Department of Clinical Oncology, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland [2] Cancer Society of Finland, Unioninkatu 22, FI-00130 Helsinki, Finland.
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Pylkkänen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000379:methods*; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data