Phone-Based Breasts Self-Examination as an Intervention in Breast Cancer Control During the COVID-19 Pandemic

IMPORTANCE: Exploring methods to mitigate the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on routine cancer screening activities among women. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness of telephone-based outreach as a substitute for physical screening for breast among screened women, during COVID-19 lockdown. DESIGN/SETTING/SUBJECTS: Asymptomatic women aged 30–59 years were screened for breast and cervix cancers in the Chennai region, between January 2017 and March 2020 and are due for screening follow-up. A database from the population-based cancer screening program organized by the Cancer Institute during the above period was used for the study. Outcome data were obtained through the period from October 2020 to March 2021. INTERVENTION: Phone-based breast self-examination awareness, inquiry about breast cancer symptoms, and guiding clinical management. OUTCOME MEASURE: Compliance to BSE protocol after 8–16 weeks, presence of significant symptoms, and incidence of early breast cancer. RESULTS: Among 12,242 screened women, 6716 (56.8%) responded to a phone-based BSE intervention and 53 women had breast-related symptoms. Thirty-two (60.4%) women reported for further evaluation, and five invasive breast cancers were identified. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: In a low-resource setting where there are no existent screening programs, simple interventions like teaching breast self-examination of women through tele-counseling can result in early detection of breast cancers.