Referrals to clinical mammography in a county without screening program

Systematic mammography-screening may reduce the number of unindicated diagnostic mammographies. Six thousand, eight hundred and four women from Rosklde County underwent mammography at the Roskilde County Hospital over a four-year-period. Five hundred and nineteen women were excluded from the study, leaving 6285 women to form the study population. Twenty-four percent of the women had no clinical indication for mammography, 15% of the women had an increased risk of breast cancer, and for 61% of the women there was a clinical indication for mammography. Breast cancer was found in 0.46% of the women undergoing mammography without a clinical indication, in 1.2% of the women belonging to risk-groups, and in 8.9% of the women with a clinical indication for mammography. Biennial screening for breast cancer of 15,394 women (7697 women a year) in the age group 50-69 years could reduce the number of diagnostic mammographies by 338 women a year. Cooperation with GPs in a reduction of unindicated clinical mammographies of women younger than 50 years could reduce the number by a further 171 women. Potential savings in the X-ray-departments is not a weighty argument in favour of introduction of mammography screening.