BMJ  2006;332:728 (25 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7543.728

Letter

Ramifications of screening for breast cancer

Consent for screening

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—In 1987, while I was professor of surgery at King's College London, I was given the task of establishing the first mammographic screening unit in southeast England. This followed the findings of the Forrest committee that were announced by Margaret Thatcher two weeks before a general election. My colleagues from the radiology department and I took great pride in setting up a purpose built unit at Camberwell Green, and within a year of receiving our instructions we were up and running and serving as the training unit for the south east of England. I was then appointed to the national steering committee of the NHS breast screening programme.

Working at the "sharp end" provided me with a somewhat different perspective to the epidemiologists, managers, and other servants of the state who served alongside me. I soon learnt first hand of the "toxic side effects" of the process and . . . [Full text of this article]

University College London Portland Hospital, London W1N 6AH michael@mbaum.freeserve.co.uk

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Related Articles

Count the harms

Fiona Godlee
BMJ 2006 332: 0. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rate of over-diagnosis of breast cancer 15 years after end of Malmö mammographic screening trial: follow-up study

Sophia Zackrisson, Ingvar Andersson, Lars Janzon, Jonas Manjer, and Jens Peter Garne
BMJ 2006 332: 689-692. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Content of invitations for publicly funded screening mammography

Karsten Juhl Jørgensen and Peter C Gøtzsche
BMJ 2006 332: 538-541. [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Ramifications of ‘Them and Me.’

William G Pickering
bmj.com, 28 Mar 2006 [Full text]