Are breast cancer screening programmes increasing rates of mastectomy? Observational study
BMJ 2002; 325 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7361.418 (Published 24 August 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:418
- Eugenio Paci (Epid1@cspo.it), directora,
- Stephen W Duffy, principal scientistc,
- Daniela Giorgi, senior epidemiologistd,
- Marco Zappa, senior epidemiologista,
- Emanuele Crocetti, senior epidemiologista,
- Vania Vezzosi, pathologiste,
- Simonetta Bianchi, senior pathologiste,
- Luigi Cataliotti, professor of surgeryf,
- Marco Rosselli del Turco, directorb
- aUnit of Epidemiology, Centre for the Study and Prevention of Cancer CSPO, Via di S Salvi 12, 50135 Florence, Italy
- bScreening Unit, Centre for the Study and Prevention of Cancer CSPO
- cDept of Mathematics, Statistics and Epidemiology, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London WC2A 3PX
- dUnit of Epidemiology, Azienda Sanitaria Locale (ASL) 2, 55100 Lucca, Italy
- ePathology Department, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
- fSurgery Department, University of Florence
- Correspondence to: E Paci
- Accepted 17 April 2002
In the recent Cochrane review of mammographic screening the authors and editors disagreed with respect to reporting the effect of screening on rates of aggressive treatment for breast cancer.1 The authors maintained that screening increased the number of mastectomies by around 20%, mainly as a result of overdiagnosis. If this were the case, populations in which screening has been introduced should see a subsequent increase in the number of radical treatments for breast cancer and an increase in the incidence of breast cancer in excess of that expected purely from lead time. We report the changes in rates of radical surgery and incidence of breast cancer since the introduction of the Florence mammographic screening programme.
Methods and Methods and Comment
We studied the …