Assessing trends of breast cancer and carcinoma in situ to monitor screening policies in developing settings

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 14144 - 7
• Main Authors: Brito, Érika de Abreu Costa, Lima, Marcela Sampaio, Siqueira, Hianga Fayssa Fernandes, Marques, Adriane Dórea, Moura, Alex Rodrigues, Hora, Evânia Curvelo, Lima, Carlos Anselmo, Santos, Marceli de Oliveira, de Souza, Mirian Carvalho, da Silva, Angela Maria, Brito, Hugo Leite de Farias, Cipolotti, Rosana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02-10-2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/4028/67/2324; 692/700/1538; Adult; Age; Age Factors; Aged; Brazil; Breast cancer; Breast Carcinoma In Situ - epidemiology; Breast Neoplasms - epidemiology; Cancer screening; Developing Countries - statistics & numerical data; Early Detection of Cancer - economics; Early Detection of Cancer - standards; Early Detection of Cancer - statistics & numerical data; Female; Health Policy; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Information systems; Medical screening; Middle Aged; Mortality; Mortality - trends; multidisciplinary; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Trends; Brazil
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50504-6

There have been arguments about the role of breast cancer screening at the population level, and some points of controversy have arisen, such the establishment of organized screening policies and the age at which to begin screening. The real benefit of screening has been questioned because the results of this practice may increase the diagnosis of indolent lesions without decreasing mortality due to breast cancer. The authors have proposed a study of incidence and mortality trends for breast cancer in a developing setting in Brazil to monitor the effectiveness of the official recommendations that prioritize the age group from 50 to 69 years. The database of the Cancer Registry and the Mortality Information System was used to calculate age-standardized and age-specific rates, which were then used to calculate incidence and mortality trends using the Joinpoint Regression Program. The results showed stability in trends across all ages and age-specific groups in both incidence and mortality. In conclusion, we found that incidence and mortality rates are compatible with those in regions with similar human development indexes, and trends have demonstrated stabilization. Thus, we do not endorse changes in the official recommendations to conduct screening for ages other than 50 to 69 years, nor should policy makers implement organized screening strategies.