Promoting early symptomatic presentation in older women with breast cancer in the NHS breast screening programme

Introduction

Women over 70 have poorer breast cancer survival than younger women, and this may be due to late stage at presentation [1]. Promoting early presentation with symptoms in older women attending for their final round of breast screening may reduce stage at diagnosis cost-effectively, and is unlikely to lead to overdiagnosis. We tested the efficacy of the 10-minute radiographer-delivered Promoting Early Presentation (PEP) Intervention to promote early presentation by increasing breast cancer awareness in the NHS Breast Screening Programme.

Methods

We randomised 867 women attending their final round of screening to receive the PEP Intervention or usual care, measuring breast cancer awareness at baseline and 1 year. We systematically reviewed the evidence of effectiveness of interventions to promote cancer awareness and early presentation.

Results

At 1 year, the intervention increased the proportion breast cancer aware compared with usual care (24% vs. 4%; odds ratio = 15.2, 95% CI = 4.8 to 47.8). The systematic review found one randomised trial of a one-to-one intervention that showed a much smaller effect on breast cancer awareness.

Conclusions

The PEP Intervention is more effective than any other intervention to promote breast cancer awareness. It will now be offered to all women attending for a final mammogram in three NHS breast screening services, to assess costs and feasibility and to measure its effect on breast cancer awareness in routine clinical practice. If implemented across the whole Programme, the PEP Intervention has the potential to reduce avoidable deaths from delayed symptomatic presentation in older women.