Implementation and performance of the national breast cancer screening Programme in the Republic of Serbia: a brief report on a decade of practice (2013-2023)

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in female population. Mammography screening (sMG) is, as a public health intervention in the context of BC, considered a golden standard for its early detection within the population of asymptomatic women between 50 and 70 years of age. Organised BC programme (the Programme) was established in 2013 in the Republic of Serbia, marking the transition from the opportune to the population based screening model. The aim of this study was to analyse the data on the Programme implementation, to gain insight into the development and provision of its services in the Republic of Serbia, as well as the specific human and technical capacities required for its sustained delivery. Aggregated yearly reports of the Cancer screening office of the IPHS "Dr Milan Jovanovic Batut" were used as the primary data source. Between 2013 and 2023, a total of 445,261 screening mammography examinations were conducted in primary healthcare centres and mobile mammography units. During the observed period on average one third (30.1%) of performed sMGs within the Programme were conducted through the mobile mammography units, while an increasing trend of participating healthcare institutions as well as the human and technical capacities on the whole was noticed. The results of this analysis aim to serve as a basis for future, more comprehensive research, which would explore regional disparities in coverage and performance indicators for BC screening, with the purpose of updating data available to the wider academic community on the topic as well as the future improvements of the Programme.