The Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program 1996-2016: Celebrating 20 years of organised mammographic screening
Report
|Published
This report represents part of our celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program. During these 20 years the program has been through an exciting journey with triumphs and challenges.
We are very proud today to offer women a high quality screening program run according to current Norwegian and European guidelines. Screening activity has been registered in the Cancer Registry of Norway since the program’s inception and is nearly 100% complete. In addition to being used for program administration, these data have been accessible and used extensively in quality assurance and research projects. The high number of scientific papers published using data from the program has improved the screening program’s quality and
visibility, and has contributed to making the program and its employees attractive for national and international research collaboration.
There have never been as many ongoing quality assurance and research projects, or such a wide range of hypotheses being explored, as there are today. Women targeted by the program are devoted: 84% of the nearly one million women invited to screening have attended at least once, resulting in a 20-30% reduction in mortality overall, and about 40% reduction in breast cancer mortality among screened women. Today, the screening program faces a number of new challenges. Not only should the program keep up with evolving technologies and new diagnostic improvements, but it should also embrace new evidence-based developments. Any new developments that are incorporated into the program should be done in such a way that their effect can be monitored. Moreover, the need to provide understandable, evidence-based information about breast cancer and mammographic screening to women, other stakeholders, and the general population is paramount.
The aim of this report is to describe the program today, its history, and noteworthy developments. Much of the program’s history has never been described, and we have attempted to gather the information here. Thank you to all who have contributed to this effort. This report also presents results from early performance measures, and shares some insights into the quality assurance, program evaluation, and research activities associated with the program, as well as our perspectives on the future development of breast cancer screening.
A 20 year old woman is full of energy, willingness to change, and has a bright future. So too is the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program.
