While Pink October began, as every year, to raise public awareness about breast cancer screening, and Marie-Do was mobilizing, once again, last week, we wanted to take stock with the director of the screening center in Corsica.
Doctor Franck Le Duff has been at the head of the center since 2017. He is also oncogeneticist, and consulted in Ajaccio, Bastia and Corte. The service is attached to the Paoli-Calmettes Institute, in Marseille. “In oncogenetics we have everything you need”smiles the specialist. “No need to go to the mainland”.
Does public opinion appreciate the importance of screening in the fight against cancer?
Overall, I would answer yes. But the subject remains rather vague. There are two kinds of screening: individual screening, as part of the follow-up of a patient by his doctor. Let’s take a 50-year-old woman. She does her mammogram, and she has the result in stride.
The comparison with the whole of the national territory is not flattering.
But there is also organized screening, which was set up about twenty years ago. It concerns three organs: the breast, the colon, and the cervix. And in the case of organized screening, the practice is a little different. This time, the result of the mammography is not given immediately. It is first picked up by the screening center, where another radiologist performs a second reading. This mechanic remains little known to the general public.
What is the situation in Corsica?
The comparison with the whole of the national territory is not flattering. In France, we are at 50.52% for breast cancer screening. This is far below what is hoped for by the European Community to fight effectively against the disease.
But in Corsica, we are still below. At 38%. During the good years.
For the settler, it’s worse. Out of 100 people in Corsica who are invited to be screened, only 14 or 15 respond to the request. In this case, you receive a blue kit, at home, you don’t even have to move. It’s free, we offer a double reading, a clinical examination, a follow-up, and it doesn’t work.
Why ?
There are two categories of people who are resistant to screening. The category of those who are afraid. Unconsciously, for them, the idea of screening implies that it will cause the disease in them.
The point of screening is precisely to detect the disease very early.
And then there is the other category, which is said “I’m not sick, I’m not asking for anything, I don’t see why I would go looking for something that I don’t have”. It’s almost irrational, but that’s the way it is. The interest of screening is precisely to detect the disease very early, before the signs are clinically presented, and, thus, to have minimal support, and very easy to do. This is what saves lives.
How to de-dramatize the process?
Talk about. Talk about it all the time. And all year round. Screening is not just Pink October, it’s all year round. Because the disease is there anyway. The key word of our action to fight against cancer is communication.
And yet, the result, you said it yourself, is not always up to par…
It’s very strange… We are very afraid of cancer, but the gestures, the decisions that could prevent the disease, most people do not adopt them. They continue to smoke, drink a lot of alcohol, eat badly, do nothing about pollution… The same goes for screening.
Cancer has almost become a chronic disease. There is phenomenal progress, and many people are recovering from it.
Whereas today he has a better chance of saving his life than of damn…
80% of cancers could be avoided in a simple way. There is a refusal to listen because it is a pathology that frightens. 15 years ago, people died very regularly of cancer. But today it has almost become a chronic disease. There is phenomenal progress, and many people are recovering from it.
The Covid has nevertheless complicated things in recent years.
He took up all the space. We ended up with people who no longer came to the screening. We faced an incredible fall. Worse still, people who had cancer were no longer coming to the hospital for treatment.
Due to lack of staff and space?
No, the means were there. It was the fear of getting the Covid, in addition to the rest. The league has already warned that it is likely that cases of cancer have gone unnoticed in the past two years. These will continue to evolve, and the management will be more complicated.
Moreover, the catch-up expected this year has not been achieved. In terms of screening, we are below 2018 and 2019. We have lost three percentage points on each of the three cancers…