Adherence to breast and ovarian cancer screening recommendations for female relatives from the Ontario site of the Breast Cancer Family Registry

Abstract

This study compares adherence to breast and ovarian cancer screening recommendations among a population cohort of women at familial risk of breast and/or ovarian cancer. This cross-sectional study included 1039 first-degree female relatives without breast cancer identified from the Ontario site of the Breast Cancer Family Registry. We compared breast and ovarian cancer screening behaviors, using a telephone-administered questionnaire among three groups of women defined by their familial risk (high, moderate, and low) of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Associations between screening behaviors and familial risk were assessed using multinomial regression models adjusted by familial clustering. Women, 40-49 years of age, at moderate or high familial risk were significantly more likely to have had a screening mammogram within the past 12 months [odds ratio (OR): 2.80; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.40-5.58], and women of less than 50 years of age were more likely to have a clinical breast examination (OR: 1.84; 95% CI: 1.02-3.31) compared with women at low familial risk. Compared with women at low or moderate familial risk, women at high familial risk were significantly more likely to have ever had a genetic test for the BRCA 1/2 genes (OR: 2.67; 95% CI: 1.76-4.05). Although the overall level of adherence among high-risk women is suboptimal in the community, women at a higher familial risk are adhering more often to cancer screening recommendations than women at a lower familial risk.