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The goal of a screening programme is to allow tumour detection at an early stage when treatments are more effective and less invasive. We examined whether attending breast cancer (BC) screening alone can explain the discovery of tumours at an early stage. Women aged 50-74 years, with a first BC diagnosed from January 2006 to December 2008, were eligible. Patients' personal and family characteristics before their BC diagnosis were collected through a questionnaire. Their tumour characteristics were provided by the Côte d'Or BC registry and staging was performed according to the criteria of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) to provide early-stage (AJCC 0/1) and advanced-stage (AJCC 2/3/4) BC. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the predictive factors for the discovery of BC at an early stage. Data from 533 patients with a BC diagnosed from January 2006 to December 2008 were used. Among them, 353 patients (66.2%) had early-stage BC whereas 175 patients (32.8%) had advanced-stage BC. Patients attending mammography screening were more likely to have had early-stage BC (P=0.0003). Multivariate analyses showed that being aged 63-74 years (P=0.008) and having had a previous regular medical follow-up (P=0.02) were independent predictors for the discovery of an early-stage BC. Mammography screening certainly allowed the discovery of BC at an early stage when performed according to the recommended 2-year interval. The regular use of health services could also contribute towards the early detection of tumours and thus towards a reduction in BC mortality.

Purpose: To characterize response shift effects in patients with breast cancer (BC)., Methods: The QLQ-C30, BR23, and EurQOL-EQ-5D were assessed at baseline and at the end of the first hospitalization. We used the then-test approach to characterize changes in internal standards by calculating the mean difference between the then-test (retrospective measure) and pre-test baseline QoL assessments. The Ideal Scale Approach was also used to assess changes in standards by comparing health and QoL expectancies between baseline and the end of the first hospitalization. Successive Comparison Approach was used to assess changes in values through the longitudinal assessment of the relative importance of EuroQOL dimensions., Results: The results of this study showed that recalibration RS effects occurred early after the first hospitalization for 6/15 dimensions of QLQ-C30 (emotional, cognitive, fatigue, insomnia, appetite loss, diarrhea) and 2/8 of BR-23 (future perspective, systemic therapy side effects). Moreover, health and QoL expectancies changed between the baseline and the end of the first hospitalization, and changes in values were seen for the self-care and usual activities dimensions of the EuroQOL-EQ-5D., Conclusions: The occurrence of RS early after the first hospitalization suggests that it needs to be taken into account to interpret QoL changes in BC.