Dépistage du cancer du sein dans deux régions françaises dans le contexte de la crise sanitaire liée à la Covid-19

In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) epidemic, France declared a full lockdown from the 16th March 2020 to the 11th May 2020. This was coupled with directives to stop breast cancer screening. Mammographic activities were then resumed according to precise modalities establishing a hierarchy of priorities. The main objective of this study, carried out in two French regions, Île-de-France and Hauts-de-France, was to measure the impact of the health crisis on participation in organised breast cancer screening. The aim was also to obtain a global overview of screening by collecting data on individual screening. Altogether, over the whole of 2020, organized breast cancer screening activity was equivalent to 92 % of 2019 activity in Île-de-France and 93 % in Hauts-de-France. Activity was below the normal level for a total of 4 months, including two months where activity had fallen to less than 10 % of the usual mammographic activity. The annual review therefore indicates a significant recovery of the mammographic activity in the second half of the year 2020. After taking into account individual screening activity, an overall but moderate reduction of 6 to 7 % in breast cancer screening was observed in the two regions in 2020. As the follow-up of this work, it will be necessary to examine the consequences of these observations on the stage of the cancers detected, as well as on the time taken to start a treatment.