Impact of breast cancer screening in a population with high spontaneous coverage with mammography.

Objective: The impact of organized screening programs on breast cancer (BC) mortality is unclear in an era of high spontaneous referral of women to mammography. The aim of this study was to analyze if the introduction of mammographic screening programs reduced BC mortality in the Veneto region, Italy, despite already widespread spontaneous access to mammography.

Methods: In Veneto, screening was introduced in different years between 1999 and 2009 across 21 local health units (LHUs), inviting asymptomatic women aged 50-69 years to undergo mammography biennially.

Long-term performance of colorectal cancerscreening programmes based on the faecal immunochemical test.

Background: The long-term performance of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programmes based on a 2-year faecal immunochemical test (FIT) is still unclear.

Methods: In a sample of 50 to 69-year-olds repeatedly screened with the FIT (OC-Hemodia latex agglutination test; cut-off: 20 µg haemoglobin/g faeces), we examined: (1) the FIT positivity rate, the CRC and advanced adenoma detection rate and the FIT's positive predictive value (PPV) for advanced neoplasia, at each round of screening and (2) the cumulative CRC and advanced adenoma detection rate after five rounds of FIT.

Results: Over 12 years (2002-2014), 123 347 individuals were administered the FIT up to six times, and 781 CRCs and 4713 advanced adenomas were diagnosed.

High sensitivity of five colorectal screening programmes with faecal immunochemical test in the Veneto Region, Italy.

Objective: Although guaiac-based faecal occult blood test screening has been shown to be effective in reducing colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality, it has been criticised mostly for its low sensitivity. Italian CRC screening programmes are based on immunochemical tests (iFOBT). We collected and analysed the interval cancers (ICs) found by five screening programmes to estimate their sensitivity.