Early rescreen/recall in the UK National Health Service breast screening programme: epidemiological data

In the United Kingdom in 1994-95 about 16,500 women aged 50 to 64 were asked to come back earlier than the usual three yearly screening interval for further mammography (early rescreen (ES)) or for a range of further investigations at an assessment centre (early recall (ER)). This study aimed at providing epidemiological data on ES/ER, in particular, how often and why it is used, and what the outcome is of using it.

National Health Service breast screening programme in the United Kingdom.

All breast screening units were invited to complete a postal questionnaire. Two reminders were sent. The units were asked retrospectively to provide breast screening data about women aged 50 to 64 from their local computer systems. Women placed on ES/ER were followed up for at least one year.

The response rate was 71% (69/97), of which 14% (10/69) were unable to provide the required data, leaving 59 completed questionnaires (61%). The rate of placing women on ES/ER was above 1.0% for 26/54 (48%) responding breast screening units and above 2.0% for 13/54 (24%) units. Women were placed on ES/ER because of (a) previous breast cancer (21% of cases; cancer detection rate 2.4%), (b) diagnostic uncertainty (51%; cancer detection rate 3.0%), or (c) family history (27%; cancer detection rate 0.6%). Breast screening units with a high rate of placing women on ER were significantly more likely to have a high recall rate (rs = 0.63; n = 53; p < 0.0005) or a high benign surgical biopsy rate (rs = 0.33; n = 49; p < 0.05), or both. The cancer detection rate of ES/ER tended to decrease with increasing ES/ER rates (rs = -0.37; n = 51; p < 0.01).

A relatively large number of women were placed on ES or ER for a range of reasons. If the recommendations given are followed, the number of women placed on ER may be reduced while maintaining the cancer detection rate at the required level. The option of ES should not be used.