Boost for breast cancer screening success rates

THE NHS breast screening programme is less likely to overdiagnose cancer than previously thought, a major study suggests.

Overdiagnosis occurs when a person has a tumour but it grows so slowly that it would have caused no symptoms.

When discovered, it is not possible to know whether it will be fast-growing or fatal, so women are often offered gruelling treatment.

It was thought between 5 and 30 per cent of tumours identified in this way would have gone unnoticed, meaning patients may have been subjected to unnecessary therapy. The odds mean some do not attend screenings, which are offered every three years between the ages of 50 and 71.

But experts from Queen Mary University of London and King’s College London, found that the true figure of overdiagnosed breast cancers is only 3.7 per cent.

The study, published in the journal Cancer Medicine, concluded that the ‘benefits of breast cancer screening do outweigh the risks’.