DESCRIPTION: Breast and cervical cancers account for nearly 50 percent of
all deaths from cancer in women in India. The objective of this study is to
undertake a community based randomized controlled trial to investigate
whether low-cost technology approaches, such as physical examination of the
breast (and teaching of breast self examination) and visual inspection of
the cervix, conducted by trained female health workers, would be effective
in down-staging these cancers at diagnosis and eventually lead to a
reduction in mortality. It is proposed to randomize 70,000 women into two
groups: one group receiving annual examinations for early detection of
breast and cervical cancer and the other acting as a control. The women in
the study will be drawn largely from the socioeconomically disadvantaged
population in the city of Bombay. The examinations will be given annually
for five years and the women will be followed-up for a further period of
five years. The sort-term objective of the study would be to demonstrate
significant down-staging of breast and cervix cancer at diagnosis at the end
of the intervention period (5 years). The longer term objective of the
study would be to demonstrate significant reduction in combined mortality
from breast and cervix cancer at 10 years. A feasibility study comprising
of 3000 women has already been completed, and the methodology of the
randomized trial would be based on the lessons learned from the feasibility
study. This is one of the first trials of this kind to be conducted in a
developing country and its findings may be relevant to other countries and
populations with limited financial resources.
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- The DCCPS Team.
