Mammography screening reduces breast cancer deaths in Ireland, study finds

Deaths from breast cancer were 9% lower in women living in a region of Ireland with a mammography screening programme compared with women of the same age living in a part of the country that introduced screening eight years later, a study comparing national data over this time period has found.1

“In order to weight the benefits against the potential harmful effects such as overdiagnosis, those who fund organised mammography screening programmes need to know how many future breast cancer deaths will be averted by them,” said the study authors, including James Hanley, from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and Katie …