Background
Australia’s national cancer screening programs aim to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality by actively recruiting and screening target populations for early detection or prevention of disease. This study analysed the cancer mortality outcomes for participants in the national bowel, breast and cervical cancer screening programs.
Aim
To compare cancer mortality outcomes for national bowel, breast and cervical cancer screening program participants and non-participants.
Methods
Data from the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, BreastScreen Australia, National Cervical Screening Program, Australian Cancer Database and the National Death Index were linked to produce a data set containing all people diagnosed with cancer in Australia, their participation (or not) in the national bowel, breast and cervical cancer screening programs and whether they had died. For people diagnosed with colorectal, breast or cervical cancers, Cox proportional hazards regression was used to compare the probability of death from cancers diagnosed through participation in the national cancer screening programs to cancers that were not.
Results
For people diagnosed with colorectal cancers after an invitation to screen in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program in 2006–2010, the risk of death before 2016 was 2.05 times as high in those who did not participate, compared with those whose cancer was diagnosed through participation. Results for breast and cervical cancers will also be presented.
Conclusion
The risk of death from colorectal cancers was lower for people diagnosed through participation in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.