Determinants of participation in a breast cancer screening trial in trivandrum district, India.

Background: Conspicuous differences in participation rates for breast self-examination (BSE), clinical breast examination (CBE), and referral for further investigations have been observed indicating involvement of a number of different factors. This study analysed determinants for participation in different levels of the breast cancer screening process in Indian females.

Materials And Methods: An intervention group of 52,011 women was interviewed in a breast cancer screening trial in Trivandrum district, India.

Clinical breast examination: preliminary results from a cluster randomized controlled trial in India.

A cluster randomized controlled trial was initiated in the Trivandrum district (Kerala, India) on January 1, 2006, to evaluate whether three rounds of triennial clinical breast examination (CBE) can reduce the incidence rate of advanced disease incidence and breast cancer mortality. A total of 275 clusters that included 115,652 healthy women, aged 30-69 years, were randomly allocated to intervention (CBE; 133 clusters; 55,844 women) or control (no screening; 142 clusters; 59,808 women) groups. Performance characteristics (sensitivity, specificity, false-positive rate, and positive predictive value) of CBE were evaluated.