Breast cancer screening programme as setting for an adjunct research project: effect on programme attendance

The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to examine if an adjunct research project to a breast cancer screening programme would affect the high programme attendance. Women residing in the municipality of Tromsø aged 55 years or older, scheduled to receive an invitation letter to their first screening round in the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Programme during our 15-week recruitment period, were eligible. We randomly selected up to 25 invitees per screening day to receive a mailed request to participate in the research project named the Tromsø Mammography and Breast Cancer study. These women constituted the study arm, while the remaining eligible invitees served as the control arm. The attendance rate to the screening programme was 80.1% among the 253 women in the study arm and 74.8% among the 397 women in the control arm (P = 0.09). Our trial finds no effect on the high attendance to the breast cancer screening programme indicating that cancer screening programmes might be suitable settings for adjunct research projects.