Wikimedia, US NavyScreening for breast cancer saves lives even though it can result in overdiagnosis, prompting women undergo surgery and radiotherapy for tumors that would not have caused any illness, according to a review published online this week (October 30) in The Lancet. Thus, breast cancer screening is a worthwhile procedure, concluded a panel of British experts commissioned to help clear up a debate about the relative harms and benefits of routine screening.
Analyzing 11 randomised controlled trials that took place 20 years ago in the United Kingdom, the panel found that women whose doctors had invited them to be screened had a 20 percent lower risk of dying from breast cancer than those not invited to be screened. But using figures derived from the analysis of three relevant trials, the panel also estimated that of the 300,000 or so women aged 50-52 invited to begin screening every year, just over 1 percent will have an overdiagnosed cancer in the next 20 years.
The panel concluded that screening programs in the United Kingdom probably prevent about 1,300 deaths every year, but can also lead to around 4,000 women being unnecessarily treated for benign cancers. So estimates suggest that ...
