Comment on: Kuwait National Mammography Screening Program: outcomes of 5 years of screening in Kuwaiti women.

We read the research published in your journal titled “Kuwait National Mammography Screening Program: outcomes of 5 years of screening in Kuwaiti women” on 7 October 2021.[1] We would like to commend the authors on such an elaborate and plausible article. The article provides a great deal of information on the prevalence of breast cancer among women in Kuwait despite poor participation. The study was a population-based screening study carried out from 2014-2019 among 14773 asymptomatic women for possible breast cancer. The study identified 551 women with lesions by a full-field digital mammography system.

The article indeed adds value to the early detection of breast cancer in women in Kuwait. However, collecting more information about risk factors from women (n=551) diagnosed with breast lesions would further improve the understanding of contributing risk factors and designing targeted breast cancer screening programs. Although, the authors mentioned that the screening was done for a specific age group (40-69 years old). The known risk factors that can uniquely contribute to the occurrence of breast cancer are obesity,[2] age of menarche,[3] late age of menopause,[3] pre-existing metabolic disorders,[4] smoking habit,[5] dietary habits,[6] blood group,[7] level of physical activity,[6] consumption of caffeine, vitamin D deficiency, duration of sleep, air population,[8] night work, diabetes,[7] and radiation exposure.[7] Information collected based on the above mentioned risk factors would greatly add to the understanding of the unique contribution of these risk factors to the occurrence of breast cancer.

Moreover, the statement in the result section of the abstract of the manuscript states that the percentage of women with breast cancer between the 40-49 year age group was 23.1%.