Opportunistic breast cancer screening for women aged 50 to 74, France, 2009[Dépistage individuel du cancer du sein des femmes de 50 à 74 ans en France en 2009]

In 2004, France implemented a national mammographic breast cancer screening programme for women aged 50 to 74 years. Women can retain the option of having an opportunistic screening mammography under medical prescription, however data on opportunistic screening are lack- ing. By analysing the National Health Insurance scheme database (EGB) and a database including information on mammographies from radiolo- gists, the coverage of breast cancer could be estimated at 10% of the target population for opportunistic screening in 2009. The global rate of women's participation to breast cancer screening was 62% , there of 52% for organised screening. 7 to 8% of women had a mammography for the monitoring of a pathology or the location of a lesion. By age, the rate of screening (opportunistic and organised) increased markedly after 50 years due to the first women's invitation, then it remained stable and decreased after 70 years (50.7% in women aged 74). The existing databases have some limitations which affect the reliability of these estimates. To improve them, a specific codification of opportunist screening should be implemented in records of health care reimbursements. Furthermore all radiologists doing mammographies should report their activity in the Sénolog database, and a quality control should be implemented.