Practice of Early Diagnosis of Breast and Uterine Cervix Cancer in a Northern Italian Town

Abstract

We studied the practice of screening for breast and uterine cervix cancer in Torino where, currently, no kind of organized program exists and two projects of population screening programs, based on pap smear and mammography, have been developed. Fifty-two percent (95% confidence limits (C.L.): 47%-58%) of women 18-69 years old had had a pap test or colposcopy in the absence of symptoms during their lifetime. Among them 50% had had their last pap test within 18 months of the interview, 77% within 3 and 1/2 years, and only 14% was screened 5 and 1/2 years before or earlier. Thirty percent of never-screened women (95% C.L.: 25-35%) would not accept any of the proposed modalities for screening. Overall, 15% of women had had a mammography for screening purposes. Among women 50 to 59 years old, 23% (95% C.L.: 17-30%) had had at least one mammography for screening purposes in their lifetime, but only 18% (95% C.L.: 13-24%) had had at least 1 screening test at age 50 or after. Half of ever-screened women age 50-69 years had had the last mammography within 2 and 1/2 years. Among all respondents in the same age group this figure was 11% (95% C.L.: 7-15%). Forty-one percent of respondents reported to currently practice BSE (95% C.L.: 36-45%), but this proportion dropped to 10% in the age group 19-39 years and to 4% among women 40-69 years old when only those who had 10-13 examinations each year and judged their performance to be good were considered. Thirty-nine percent (95% C.L.: 34-44%) had had a physical examination of the breast performed by a medical doctor in the absence of symptoms within the last 18 months. Thirty-five percent (95% C.L.: 31-38%) of all women had never had a mammography, did not practice BSE, and had never consulted a physician for control in the absence of symptoms. Analysis by age, birth cohort, education, marital status and place of birth is presented.