Breast cancer in Brazil: Screening program and surgical approach

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BackgroundScreening mammography for breast cancer (BC) is a current strategy that reduces the mortality of BC by up to 30 %. Although mastectomy has been an important component of treatment for decades, conservative surgery (lumpectomy) has become the gold-standard approach for most cases, yet it depends on early detection of the BC. MethodsThis was an epidemiological study performed through DATASUS (2010–2018). We evaluated the temporal trend of screening mammograms, deaths from BC, and surgical procedures at national, regional and state levels. Statistical analysis was performed on VassarStat®—Website for Statistical Computation (Vassar College, New York, USA) and the R-software (R Foundation, v.4.0.3). ResultsDuring 2010–2018 there were 67,392 oncological mastectomies and 48,567 lumpectomies in Brazil’s health system. Mastectomies decreased in the Northeast (–3.67 % ± 0.43 per year) and in Bahia state (–3.58 % ± 0.24 per year). Lumpectomies increased in Brazil (median 2.19 (–9.6 to 20.96)), the Northeast (median –12.07 (–25.8 to 9.43)) and Bahia (median 0.16 (–29.1 to 1.9)). Also, screening mammograms increased in Brazil (3.29 % ± 0.43), the Northeast (6.36 % ± 0.49) and Bahia (5.51 % ± 0.31), with 35,317,728 exams during this period. Deaths from BC increased annually in Brazil (+4.13 % ± 0.86), the Northeast (+4.76 % ± 1.45) and Bahia (+5.65 % ± 0.83). ConclusionThe number of mammograms related to the screening program increased in the years 2010–2018 in Brazil. Furthermore, we identified an increase in lumpectomies as opposed to mastectomies, and this approach is associated with a reduction in hospitalization days by almost a half, which in turn might result in a cost decrease and probably an earlier return to work.