Mammography screening in less developed countries

Abstract

Less developed countries (LDCs) are struggling with an increasing burden of breast cancer. It is important to identify what interventions might be most effective and feasible in reducing overall breast cancer mortality in a resource constrained settings. Mammography screening (MS) utilized in developed countries cannot be equally applied to LDCs. We provide a summary of the status of existing and past MS program attempts in LDCs, and try to determine the prerequisites under which any developing country is ready to benefit from a MS program. We make the case for a “mixed” portfolio of tools to reduce breast cancer mortality with MS reserved only for those sub-populations that meet the criteria. We hope our review will provide a background for policy makers to apply rigorous criteria before attempting to implement costly MS program and before judiciously evaluating additional competed programs in their countries.

Review of non-clinical risk models to aid prevention of breast cancer

“…As yet routine mammography screening is not readily available globally, particularly in some developing countries [ 7 , 8 ]. This is supported by the observations that for every million adult women there are only four mammogram screening machines in Sudan has four mammogram machines, whereas Mexico has 37 and Canada has 72 [ 9 ]. Under these circumstances, it is clearly more appropriate to prioritize access to mammographic screening or other targeted interventions (such as tamoxifen chemoprevention) for higher-risk individuals who could be identified using a sensitive and specific risk prediction model [ 10 ].…”

Use of patient decision aids increased younger women’s reluctance to begin screening mammography: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Due to the different interpretations of evidence around potential benefits and harms of screening mammography, current breast cancer screening recommendations are not uniform across countries [10][11][12] and professional organizations ( Fig. 1) including the WHO, 3 American Cancer Society, 6 United States Preventive Services Task Force, 13 and Canadian Cancer Society.…”

Increased Expression of the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End-Products (RAGE) Is Associated with Advanced Breast Cancer Stage

“…A widely available, cheap, and rapid tool, mammography is used as the acceptable standard screening examination for the diagnosis of breast cancer [2]. However, the utility of the mammography method as a screening test is not complete [3].…”