"Don't put off your mammogram anymore."
The message is clear, written in large letters on one of the trucks of the Bus de la Santé association, posted on the forecourt of the town hall of Garges-lès-Gonesse, a suburb of Paris located in the Val-d'Oise. , on this Monday, October 18.
A young woman comes forward and does not dare to enter this mobile radiology office. "You can benefit from a free consultation with a general practitioner, then a mammogram with the radiologist", explains Murielle Lamour, public health prevention officer at the town hall who is participating in the project. The young woman is well aware that it is breast cancer screening. But she replies that it scares her. She turns back, while promising to come back in the afternoon. Good thing, this mobile prevention and screening unit nicknamed the Mammobus will remain parked here until 5 p.m.
Inside one of the two trucks installed on the town hall square, a radiology technician and a radiologist provide free consultations.
"For one in two people received this morning, it was the very first mammogram, while some women are over fifty," says Karima, the manipulator.
Used to screening campaigns, she does not seem surprised.
In a second prevention bus, women can learn about self-examination and consult a general practitioner.
© France 24
TV spots, letters, posters ... Each year, the State tries to fight with a lot of communication against breast cancer, which continues to kill nearly 12,000 women per year in France.
It remains the leading cause of cancer death in women.
And for 27 years, Pink October has been the month dedicated to the fight against this scourge.
Yet when it is detected early, breast cancer is cured in 9 out of 10 cases. Also, to encourage screening, women between 50 and 74, the age group most affected, benefit, every two years, a free mammogram.
A summons for this non-compulsory medical examination is sent to them by mail by Social Security.
They still have to make an appointment to take this exam, because in 50% of cases they do not.
Worse still, with the Covid-19 pandemic, the national participation rate in organized screening has dropped to 42.8%.
"If there has been no prevention, if they have difficulty finding a radiologist because of the medical deserts, the mail [from Social Security] will go in the trash", regrets Khalid Zaouche, originally of the Mammobus.
Disadvantaged women are less screened
With his association, the Health Bus, he therefore proposes to pick up these women as close as possible to their homes, their journeys or the places they frequent, to raise their awareness.
The approach, born of a partnership between the association, public actors and private companies, makes sense because, according to the French public health agency, several studies show that women of low economic status with regard to "level of education, income, and employment" have a lower tendency to get screened for breast cancer.
Women wait inside the bus before the appointment with a general practitioner who will perform a palpation.
© France 24
Since its launch in 2018, the Health Bus has carried out other prevention operations in the heart of working-class neighborhoods, in the oral and dental field and screening for lung cancer, tuberculosis, and Covid-19.
"Women are often taken by family life, they take care of children and forget to take care of them. In the scale of emergencies to be managed on a daily basis, it happens after", notes Murielle Lamour.
Healthy self-examination
Most of those who made the trip this morning were encouraged to come by the social centers of the city, associations and local structures.
This is the case of Mariam *, 37, who is patient in the waiting room of the Mammobus.
The mother, of Malian origin, was referred by the Maison des Langues, a municipal establishment where she learns French.
In addition to mammography, a second truck offers consultation with a general practitioner and self-examination workshops on a mannequin bust.
The false bust used for the demonstration of self-examination against breast cancer, in Garges-lès-Gonesse, October 18, 2021. © France 24
For Mariam, this is a first in several ways.
She did not know this technique which consists of positioning her hands on the chest to detect any nodules.
“Each woman is the one who knows her body best,” says another resident of Garge-lès-Gonesse, who is waiting her turn.
"It was a friend who taught me how to do it, my gynecologist had never told me about it".
Dr Mohammed Salem, radiologist, analyzes the results of mammograms carried out in the prevention truck in Garges-lès-Gonesse.
© France 24
"It often happens that women discover cancer while self-examining", attests Dr. Mohamed Salem, radiologist at this Mammobus.
This is why health authorities recommend that women monitor their breasts themselves between two mammograms, paying attention to the slightest changes such as the appearance of balls or lump in a breast or armpit, abnormal discharge, or a breast. which increases for no particular reason.
After this stage in Garge-lès-Gonesse, the Mammobus will stop in several cities of Île-de-France, in Seine-Saint-Denis, in Essonne and in Yvelines on the occasion of pink October.
If the experiment is successful, the operation could be extended to other territories throughout the rest of the year.
* The first name has been changed
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