Table 1.

Characteristics of the Italian organised screening programmes in 2013

	Cervical cancer screening	Breast cancer screening
Target age	25–64	50–69*
Test	Pap test†	Mammography (double projection)
Interval	3 years	2 years
Proportion of the target population regularly invited	70.8%	73.9%
Participation rate	40.9%	57.0%

*In two regions, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, the target age was extended in 2010 to 45–74 years. In these regions, the screening interval is 1 year for women aged 45–49 years.

†Since January 2013, the Italian Ministry of Health now recommends HPV-DNA test, followed by cytology triage in case of HPV positivity, with 5-year interval, as an alternative option to Pap test every 3 years for women ≥30 years. When the interviews were conducted in 2013, only few pilot studies used HPV as primary screening test, accounting for 7.5% and 6.9% of the invited population in 2012 and 2013, respectively.