Mammography Programme Anniversary Exhibition;
Credit: MSAN
Last Wednesday marked the 25th anniversary of Luxembourg’s mammography programme aimed at the early detection of breast cancer.
As of 25 October 2017, the Luxembourg Ministry of Health celebrated 25 years of its Mammography Programme, surrounded by all its partners who contributed during these years to the programme’s development.
Since 1992, the Ministry of Health has organised mammography screenings for breast cancer aimed at detecting signs of breast cancer at an early stage, that is, without waiting for symptoms. Indeed, early detection of breast cancer has been found to give the woman a better chance of remission.
Beginning with 4,700 screening mammograms performed in 1992, this number increased to more than 18,000 annual mammograms by 2014. In Luxembourg, around 30,000 women between the ages of 50 and 70 are invited annually to participate in an organised screening test with 18,000 women agreeing to get tested.
On average, out of 1,000 women screened, 950 women have normal mammograms, 50 women have abnormal mammograms. After further examinations, no cancer was detected for 43 women. On the other hand, cancer was confirmed in seven women, most of them at a beginner stage.
Between 1992-2016, a total of 320,000 mammograms were performed. 1,930 cancers were detected between 1992 and 2014, with an average of 18% not seen by one of the two readers and subsequently detected by the double-reading method.
The overall coordination of the mammography programme is provided by the Coordinating Centre for Cancer Screening Programmes in the Division of Preventive Medicine of the health sector. In 2017, 33 medical professionals are currently involved in the programme as well as other professionals. Luxembourg is in possession of seven mammographs and one table dedicated to biopsy under stereotaxis.
During the anniversary session, the travelling exhibition "The Mammography Programme celebrates its 25th anniversary!", was unveiled. The exhibition highlights key dates for the development of the Mammography Programme in Luxembourg and also pays tribute to all the professionals involved and without whom the programme could not function.
