[Breast cancer surgery in Norway 1990-95 illustrated by data from SINTEF United]

Breast-conserving therapy has been shown to be as effective as mastectomy in many cases; hence in many countries more breast cancer patients are offered this type of treatment. This study focuses on the amount and type of surgery used in Norway for breast cancer patients and the possible use of hospital discharge data to evaluate the diffusion of this surgical practice.

Data from the nationwide Register of Hospital Discharges in Norway at SINTEF Unimed for patients operated for breast cancer from 1990 to 1995 were used.

11,041 patients were registered with 11,727 hospital admissions for breast cancer operations from a total of 64 hospitals. The discrepancy in the number of breast cancer patients with the National Cancer Registry was 7%. Breast-conserving surgery was performed in 19.7%. An increase from 17% in 1990 to 21% in 1995 was found, but with variations according to type of hospital, county and age of patients.

The percentage of breast conserving surgery is still low in Norway; this indicates that many women are not offered this type of surgery. With some caution, the data from SINTEF Unimed can be used to reflect the clinical practice over time at Norwegian hospitals. Further improvements could be obtained if national identity numbers were added to the database.