IARC and Dharmais Cancer Hospital, Indonesia, launch Ultra3-CBE project to improve breast cancer screening

Scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and health-care workers at Dharmais Cancer Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, have launched the Ultrasound-Based Triaging for Women Diagnosed with Breast Lumps by Clinical Breast Examination (Ultra3-CBE) project. The project, which is integrated into the national breast cancer screening programme of Indonesia, aims to determine whether ultrasound-based triaging by trained medical officers at primary health facilities can detect benign lesions in women with breast lumps identified through clinical breast examination (CBE) at these facilities.

This point-of-care approach would help reduce the load on tertiary facilities at radiology and pathology centres and also prevent unnecessary interventions in women diagnosed with benign breast lesions in a CBE-based screening programme.

As part of this project, three groups of medical officers from primary health facilities (Puskesmas) in the West Jakarta region were trained by a team at Dharmais Cancer Hospital. The training included a lecture series and hands-on experience with ultrasound machines. In total, 58 medical officers were trained. These medical officers will perform triaging by identifying benign lesions in women with breast lumps detected through CBE.

The overall aim of the project is to improve the speed of breast cancer diagnosis and thereby improve the survival of patients with breast cancer by strengthening the breast cancer screening capacity in primary health-care settings.

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