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. 2018 Nov;119(11):1428-1435.
doi: 10.1038/s41416-018-0308-2. Epub 2018 Nov 7.

Association of symptoms and interval breast cancers in the mammography-screening programme: population-based matched cohort study

Deependra Singh  1   2 , Joonas Miettinen  3 , Stephen Duffy  4 , Nea Malila  3   5 , Janne Pitkäniemi  3 , Ahti Anttila  3
Affiliations

Association of symptoms and interval breast cancers in the mammography-screening programme: population-based matched cohort study

Deependra Singh et al. Br J Cancer. 2018 Nov.

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: We assessed the association between symptoms reported at breast cancer screening visits and interval cancers (ICs) in a prospective manner.

Methods: This population-based matched cohort study uses data of the Finnish National Breast Cancer Screening Programme that invites women aged 50-69 years old during 1992-2012. Subjects who attended screening with symptoms were matched with asymptomatic reference cohorts based on age at screening visit, year of invitation, number of invited visits and municipality of invitation. The primary outcome was ICs.

Results: Women with a lump had a threefold (hazard ratio 3.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.0-4.6) risk of ICs and a higher risk (hazard ratio 1.7, 95% CI 1.4 to 2.0) at the subsequent visit compared with those without a lump. The fatal interval cancer risk increased by 0.39 per 1000 screens with a lump. The cumulative incidences of interval cancer increased within a month of a mammography-negative visit with a lump and after about 6 months of the visit with retraction or nipple discharge.

Conclusion: Women with breast symptoms have a clearly increased risk of interval breast cancer after the screening visit. Our findings indicate the need for different screening strategies in symptomatic women.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest or disclosures. All authors declare no financial or other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram of study settings
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
a–d Cumulative incidence of invasive (per 1000): a recalled ICs; b not recalled ICs; c non-localised ICs; d fatal interval cancers. Note: the confidence intervals lines for cumulative incidence are indicated by light dotted lines in symptomatic and asymptomatic groups
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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