Background: Despite Public Health England guidance on interval breast cancer (where a patient with new diagnosis of breast cancer was reported to have a normal screening mammogram within last 3 years or normal family history screening mammogram within last 1 year), there has been no uniform policy in place locally. An initial local assessment in June 2019 showed an incidence of 31 interval breast cancers over a 12-month period. Introduction of interval breast cancer pathway, aiming for 100% improvement in dissemination of information, recording of data, and subsequent actions. Methods: A pathway was created involving relevant stakeholders and all interval breast cancers between 01/07/2020 and 31/09/2020 were analysed. Results: A total of 10 patients were identified, age ranged from 50 to 78 (median 57) years. Site of screening was exclusively at regional screening centre. Time interval range was 5.6 – 29.3 (mean 19.2) months. Pathway compliance was- i) radiology alert: 9/10 (90%) (1 missed case was subsequently noted following the clinic visit);ii) informing patients in clinic with record of documentation: 10/10 (100%);and informing screening unit with record of documentation: 10/10 (100%). Altered activity due to COVID did not influence the outcome. Conclusions: The introduction of interval cancer pathway has made the dissemination of information and subsequent actions uniform. The compliance rate has been 90% and above. Adhering to the pathway would help improve compliance further.
Interval breast cancer information dissemination and action during COVID period