Performance Data of Screening Mammography at a Dedicated Breast Health Centre (Original Articles) (Clinical Report‪)‬

In Western societies, mammographic screening is part of routine health care and has been instrumental in reducing the mortality of this dreaded disease. (1) An editorial by Dent and Panieri (2) reflected on screening mammography and elicited lively debate. In our opinion, they missed the point, as it was based on a re-assessment of data gathered over 20 years ago with obsolete technology--data that had been gathered in populations that might have had markedly different prevalence and incidence patterns from South African populations. Furthermore, the background of a resource-restricted country has an influence on the interpretation of screening data. A database search yielded not a single publication detailing results of screening mammography in Africa, indicating a crucial lack of data for this important health care topic from the continent. Cognisant of these limitations, we present a first analysis of screening mammography in a dedicated breast health centre in Africa, establishing a performance benchmark and providing data to expedite health care policy and funding decisions. Methods