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ORIGINAL PAPER
Surgical intervention in screen-detected patients versus symptomatic patients with breast cancer MF Dillon, ADK Hill, CM Quinn, A O’Doherty, J Crown, FJ Fleming, EW McDermott and N O’Higgins ................................................................................................... J Med Screen 2004;11:130–134
See end of article for authors’ affiliations
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Correspondence to: Mr ADK Hill, Department of Surgery, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin 4, Ireland; Email:
[email protected] Accepted for publication 3 June 2004
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Objectives: The impact of population-based screening for breast cancer on the rate of breastconserving surgery has not been established. We sought to evaluate whether surgical intervention in patients with screen-detected breast cancer differed from those with clinically detected tumours. Settings: St Vincent’s University Hospital and the BreastCheck Merrion Unit, part of the Irish National Breast Screening Programme, were the setting for the study. Methods: A total of 902 patients referred for surgery to St Vincent’s University Hospital over a fouryear period (2000–2003) were studied. Patients with breast cancers detected during the prevalent round of screening (n=325) were compared with patients presenting with symptomatic disease (n=577). The operative procedure, nature of axillary surgery and histopathological findings were recorded in each case. Results: There was an increase in breast-conserving therapy in the screened population compared with symptomatic cases (68% screened versus 53% symptomatic; p
