During Pink October, breast cancer awareness is in full swing. In Corsica, its importance is increased tenfold in view of the worrying drop in the number of women taking part in organized screening.
This Tuesday, October 111, the CRCDC brought together various actors in this fight to recall the good behavior to adopt to avoid the most frequent and deadly cancer in women. “We are faced with a significant lack of organized screening on the islandsays Doctor Franck Le Duff, onco-geneticist and director of CRCDC-Corse. Of the 50,000 eligible women, therefore from 50 to 74 years old, only 38% perform mammograms.
A figure well below the national average of 51%, not to mention the European desire to reach 75%. This organized screening, which every woman of the age group should perform every two years, consists of having a mammogram completed by a clinical examination in order to detect the presence of early cancer. “The added value compared to individual screening is to have two readings of the images at two times given by two different radiologists, explains Doctor Le Duff. This double reading, offered free of charge, makes it possible to detect images of cancer that went unnoticed during the first reading. A proven technique: nearly 10% of breast cancers are detected in this way.
Only 20% of women screened in Ajaccio
During her lifetime, one in eight women is at risk of developing breast cancer. Screening, fully covered by health insurance, plays a crucial role not only in the detection, but also in the treatment of the pathology. “Discovered early, breast cancer offers a 90% chance of survival using ‘only’ surgery and radiotherapyexplains the president of the CRCDC-Corsica and freshly retired radiologist, doctor Joseph Orabona. If discovered late, treatment will require chemotherapy and that chance of surviving drops to 26%. Clearly, the faster we detect, the less burdensome and time-consuming the treatment is for patients.
But in Corsica, the message gets across better in some places than in others. “There are great disparities depending on the areas of the island, explains Joseph Orabona. In Bastia, more than 50% of women take part in organized screening when in Ajaccio, it is difficult to exceed 20%…” Alarming figures, while 200 women develop breast cancer each year on the island.
This observation varies according to the type of cancer. “Cervical cancer screening, which concerns 25-65 year olds, reaches 60% of smears in Corsica, rejoices Dr. Franck Le Duff. But if we take the example of colorectal cancer which must be done every two years, it is done alone in five minutes very simply with a free kit. There is no risk, we get a result in ten days, but only 14% of Corsicans do it…”
While Corsica has all the necessary infrastructure, screening is not a choice, it is a necessity. In Bastia as in Ajaccio, all breast cancers can be treated technically and therapeutically without any difficulty.
