Women are being urged to continue attending breast cancer screening despite evidence that it has “significant downsides” as well as benefits, according to a review published today.
A panel of experts concluded that while screening prevents about 1,300 breast cancer deaths a year, it can also lead to 4,000 women having treatment unnecessarily.
The Independent Breast Screening Review, commissioned by the Department of Health and the charity Cancer Research UK, said that a study of all available evidence suggested that for each breast cancer death that was prevented another three “overdiagnosed” cases would be identified and treated.
Each overdiagnosis — involving the detection through screening of a cancer that would never have caused a problem — is likely to have been treated aggressively