Selective screening for breast cancer in Guildford

Abstract

A preliminary survey has been carried out to test the feasibility of screening a high-risk group of women for breast cancer, using clinical examination and low-dose mammography, before the establishment of a two-tier screening system of basic well-woman clinics for the over-25s, and breast screening clinics for those over-35s considered to have a higher than average expectation of developing the disease. 7 breast cancers and 1 case of Hodgkin's disease were detected in 618 women (breast cancers 11-3/1000, malignancies 12-9/1000). Though numbers are small they suggest that the women themselves do not suspect the presence of those breast cancers which carry the best prognosis, though being aware of the larger cancers and of many of those benign localised breast lesions requiring surgical treatment.