Assessing and Explaining Geographic Variations in Mammography Screening Participation and Breast Cancer Incidence.

Investigating geographic variations in mammography screening participation and breast cancer incidence help improve prevention strategies to reduce the burden of breast cancer. This study examined the suitability of health insurance claims data for assessing and explaining geographic variations in mammography screening participation and breast cancer incidence at the district level. Based on screening unit data (1,181,212 mammography screening events), cancer registry data (13,241 incident breast cancer cases) and claims data (147,325 mammography screening events; 1,778 incident breast cancer cases), screening unit and claims-based standardized participation ratios (SPR) of mammography screening as well as cancer registry and claims-based standardized incidence ratios (SIR) of breast cancer between 2011 and 2014 were estimated for the 46 districts of the German federal state of Lower Saxony.

[Time trend in programme sensitivity within the German mammography screening programme in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony].

Background: The programme sensitivity is a performance indicator for evaluating the quality of the mammography screening programme (MSP).

Objectives: We analysed the development of the programme sensitivity over time in two federal states of Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Lower Saxony (NDS).

Materials And Methods: Data from 2,717,801 (NRW) and 1,197,660 (NDS) screening examinations between 2006 and 2011 were linked with data of the State Cancer Registry NRW and the Epidemiological Cancer Registry NDS, respectively.

Recent Trends in Survival of Patients With Pancreatic Cancer in Germany and the United States.

Objectives: Survival improvement for pancreatic cancer has not been observed in the last 4 decades. We report the most up-to-date population-based relative survival (RS) estimates and recent trends in Germany and the United States.

Methods: Data for patients diagnosed in 1997 to 2010 and followed up to 2010 were drawn from 12 population-based German cancer registries and the US SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) 13 registries database.