Objective: To present results from the UK NHS breast screening programme (NHSBSP) for the six-year period from 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2005, and to compare these with targets.
Methods: Data are collected annually from all UK screening units on standard KC62 return forms.
Results: The prevalence of screen-positive cancer (cancer detection rate) has increased at both rounds during the six-year period. At the incident round, cancer detection rates increased by 24%, from 5.4 per 1000 in 2000 to 6.7 per 1000 in 2005 and the detection of small cancers (≤ 10 mm) has increased by 40%. Generally, quality measures in the programme continue to improve. However, while rates of recall at the incident screen decreased from 3.8% in 2000 to 3.6% in 2005, at the prevalent round, in 2005, 22% of units continued to recall more than 10% of women to assessment.
Conclusions: The results suggest that the performance of the programme continues to improve. In the future, analysis of data on interval cancers will assist the interpretation of cancer detection rates.
