BACKGROUND:

Mammograms are one of the most effective preventive means for the early detection of breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE:

To describe the features of patients and results of mammograms performed at a public breast imaging service of the Santiago Metropolitan Area.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

We reviewed the reports of mammograms performed on 174,017 women and 18 men, between 2008 and 2018 in an Imaging Center. The BI-RADS classification was used in the reports.

RESULTS:

Forty-six percent of mammograms (75,781) were reported as BI-RADS 2. The high proportion of BI-RADS 4 reports (674 reports) was seen in patients aged 40 to 49 years, corresponding to 30% of reports in this age range. Among patients aged 50 to 59 years, there were 779 BI-RADS 4 reports (35%). BI-RADS 5 reports were more common among patients aged 50 to 59 years (50 reports, 30%) and among patients aged 70 years or older (83 reports, 28%).

CONCLUSIONS:

The presence of a significant number of women between 40 and 49 years of age with a BI-RADS 4 mammography result stands out; being an opportunity to develop new clinical research and public health strategies within the framework of the Universal Health Care policy for breast cancer in Chile.