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Objective: To determine if increased access to mammography (MMG) impacts on the stage at presentation of breast cancer among underserved populations and survival outcomes of women accessing the cancer screening program.
Design: Retrospective review
Setting: Women and Infants Hospital June 2006 to June 2010
Patients: Newly diagnosed breast cancer patients identified from the Tumor Registry
Interventions: Cross reference was performed with a database of women accessing mammographic screening via the Women’s Cancer Screening Program (WCSP) versus all others. Mammography data was evaluated for each patient.
Main Outcome Measure: Stage at diagnosis
Results: Preliminary data analysis reveals that there were 1,068 newly diagnosed cancers during study period from June 2006 to June 2010. Of those, 68 were in patients who were part of the WCSP and 1,000 were non-WCSP patients. Median age in the WCSP group was 50 vs. 55 in the non-WCSP (p=.3). The majority of the patients in the WCSP group were Hispanic compared to the majority being white/other in the non-WCSP group (p=.0006). All the tumors categorized as T2 or less in both groups. Node status was similar with 90% negative in the WCSP vs. 91% in the non-WCSP(p=1.0). None of the patients had metastatic disease at diagnosis. The median tumor size (mm) showed no statistical difference with 11.5 in the WCSP vs. 13 in the non-WCSP(p=.3). At two years all patients continue to be alive to date, there is only one recurrence reported in the non-WCSP group.
Conclusion: In both groups the cancer diagnosis occurred at a similar stage, with similar tumor characteristics and nodal involvement. Due to the short follow-up it is difficult to make conclusions about survival.