No. Breast cancer researchers Robin Bell and Robert Burton believe that screening can result in overdiagnosis
Screening mammography undoubtedly saves lives. Since 1991, when Australia’s free national mammographic screening program (BreastScreen Australia) began, there has been a 29% reduction in breast cancer-specific mortality. However, our analysis of age-stratified data indicates that BreastScreen does not account for most of this mortality reduction.1 Furthermore, it is now recognised that the balance between the benefits and harms of screening has become increasingly unfavourable. Women should be given a balanced explanation of what BreastScreen offers them.
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- 1. Burton RC, Bell RJ, Thiagarajah G, Stevenson C. Adjuvant therapy, not mammographic screening, accounts for most of the observed breast cancer specific mortality reductions in Australian women since the national screening program began in 1991. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2011; 29 Sep [Epub ahead of print].
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- 4. Morrell S, Barratt A, Irwig L, et al. Estimates of overdiagnosis of invasive breast cancer associated with screening mammography. Cancer Causes Control 2010; 21: 275-282.
- 5. Richards M. An independent review is under way. BMJ 2011; 343: d6843.
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