There have been attempts to introduce clinical breast screening programmes to the general public, but success has been variable. Two major obstacles faced by these programmes are that many women at low risk for breast cancer undergo unnecessary screening and that those who test positive for abnormalities are not adequately followed up.
Surgeons at Stellenbosch University (SU) are testing a new strategy that could give women in South Africa better access to clinical breast cancer screening. In a recent project, these experts used an international tool that uses an algorithm to assess a woman’s breast cancer risk. This ensures that women at higher risk are screened as a priority.
In South Africa, only 8% of breast cancer cases receive an early (stage 1) diagnosis at state clinics, with the majority of patients (60%) already having advanced stages of the disease at the time of diagnosis, according to Dr. Jenny Edge, a surgical expert at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Tygerberg Hospital. Because advanced cancer is usually more difficult to treat, early detection is crucial. Although there are many screening options, including mammography and MRI, they require trained medical experts and can be expensive, so many women put off routine screening until symptoms manifest. In reality, more than 90% of patients with breast cancer in state clinics arrive with a palpable breast mass.
The International Breast Cancer Interventions Study tool was used by a research team headed by Dr. David Gorry, a surgical registrar at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Tygerberg Hospital, to create the Risk Stratified Breast Screening project (IBIS). Within ten years of her current age, this algorithm calculates a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer, and if that risk is thought to be higher than 1%, she is referred for a clinical examination or mammography. The IBIS tool has the potential to screen sizable populations of women, swiftly evaluate personal risk, and pinpoint those who need additional testing.
Originally published here.
