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NHS breast screening report contradicts Cochrane findings

Andrew Moscrop BMJ

The NHS Cancer Screening Programmes insisted this week that breast screening saved lives, despite recent claims to the contrary by the Cochrane centre.

Julietta Patnick, national coordinator of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes, said that breast cancer screening "reduces the risk of a woman dying from the disease." This statement contradicts the findings of a Cochrane review published last month. The Cochrane review concluded that "currently available reliable evidence does not show a survival benefit of mass screening for breast cancer (and the evidence is inconclusive for breast cancer mortality)." The abstract of the Cochrane review can be accessed at www.cochrane.org/cochrane/revabstr/ab001877.htm

The 2001 breast screening programme's annual review, published this week, said that "more women are being screened and more cancers are being detected than ever before" and that this "should help to improve women’s chances of survival."

No-one at the launch of the . . . [Full text of this article]

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