Screening has reduced mastectomy rates

The rate of radical mastectomy has declined and the rate of breast conserving surgery has increased with the advent of screening, say Paci and colleagues (p 418). For the years 1990-6 they show that the absolute rate of mastectomy declined by 0.5 per 1000 women in the population and the rate of breast conserving surgery increased by around 0.7 per 1000. These rate changes are strongly related to the increasing amount of screening activity. They say that this shows that the introduction of screening has brought about a reduction in mastectomy rates, not an increase, as has been previously maintained.

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Relevant Article

Are breast cancer screening programmes increasing rates of mastectomy? Observational study

Eugenio Paci, Stephen W Duffy, Daniela Giorgi, Marco Zappa, Emanuele Crocetti, Vania Vezzosi, Simonetta Bianchi, Luigi Cataliotti, and Marco Rosselli del Turco
BMJ 2002 325: 418. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]