Breast cancer screening benefits ‘overstated’
September 07, 2011
Posted by:Suzanne Trask
Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Danish medical researchers call for ‘more honesty’ from the NHS. They say that claims that one death is prevented for every 400 women screened may not be true.
The researchers say that better survival rates are down to improved treatment methods rather than the NHS screening programme. They say that the effects of over-diagnosis, where women have mastectomies for abnormalities that would not become a problem have been downplayed.
This was challenged by the director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes, who said that these claims have already been rebutted. The Department of Health says that NHS screening saves more than 1400 women a year and is being expanded.