[Mass screening for breast cancer in Herault county. First results in women between 40 and 70 years old].

A large scale mammography breast cancer screening has begun in Herault county on the first of july 1990. The aim of the project was to determine the impact of two-view mammography upon the size of the tumor and later upon mortality from breast cancer. The women aged 40-70 at entry were invited by mail to the first round of mobile breast screening. Between the start and the 8th of march 1991, 5098 (64%) attended the first round. The cancer detection rate was 5.9/1000, the positive detection rate was 7.75%, the benign malignant surgical biopsy ratio was 1:0.7 and the percentage of surgical biopsies positives for malignancy was 42.6%. Two months after this study, the screening specificity was 96.7% and the sensibility was 92.7%. The rate of tumor size less or equal to 1 cm was 72% (for 30 malignancies) and the rate of mastectomies was 43.3%. These friendly results were compared to those of others breast cancers screenings.