The first national public breast cancer screening program in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Despite its relatively low incidence in Saudi Arabia, breast cancer has been the most common cancer among Saudi females for the past 12 consecutive years. The objective of this study was to report the results of the first national public breast cancer screening program in Saudi Arabia.METHODS:Women 40 years of age or older underwent breast cancer screening. Mammograms were scored using the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS). Correlations between imaging findings, risk factors and pathological findings were analyzed.RESULTS:Between September 2007 and April 2008, 1215 women were enrolled. The median age was 45 years, and median body mass index was 31.6 kg/m2. Sixteen cases of cancer were diagnosed. No cancer was diagnosed in 942 women with R1/R2 scores, and only 1 case of cancer was diagnosed in 228 women with R0/R3 scores. However, among 26 women with R4/R5 scores, 50% had malignant disease and 35% had benign lesions. No correlation was found between known risk factors and imaging score or cancer diagnosis.CONCLUSIONS:Public acceptance of the breast cancer screening program was encouraging. Longitudinal follow-up will help in better determining the risk factors relevant to our patient population.

Women’s Performance of Breast Cancer Screening (Breast Self- Examination, Clinical Breast Exam and Mammography)

“…In reference to another study, Women were not obtaining access to the screening program due to several factors, and most importantly, lack of education and awareness [15]. Data in this study were in concordance with the previous study which indicated that education level has a strong impact on women performance toward breast cancer screening.…”

“…Despite the spread of breast cancer screening centers in Saudi Arabia that offer free screening service, many women have no access to the screening program due to several factors like cultural, environmental, lack of education and awareness among females; and most importantly, lack of social support that incorporates lack of encouragement by a physician [15].…”

Do Saudi Nurses in Primary Health Care Centres have Breast Cancer Knowledge to Promote Breast Cancer Awareness?

“…Another characteristic of BC in Saudi Arabia is that the majority of cases are under 45 years of age. (Abulkhair et al, 2010).…”

Retrospective Study Assessing Breast Cancer Occurrence and its Risk Factors among Females at Al Ahsa

“…They found also that the highest rate of mammography screening was among the women from Al Sharqia, and the incidence of a routine medical check-up was highest among the educated women in the last two years [41]. Selective studies were also done in Saudi Arabia in 2010-2011 about mammographic screening [29,[42][43], their results have shown the importance of public awareness of mammographic screening, which helps in early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer.…”

“…The incidence rates increase per year [6,27]. Despite the BC incidence is low in KSA in comparison with other developing countries [29] but it remains the first type of cancer among Saudi female [28]. The incidence of BC was increasing proportionally among females from different ages from 10.2% (2000) to 24.3% (2005) [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”