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The Journal of Medical Screening shows a "substantial and significant reduction in breast cancer deaths" from mammographic breast cancer screening with "between 2 and 2.5 lives saved".

Regular mammographic screening for breast cancer saves the lives of two women for every one who is given unnecessary treatment, scientists said, in a study which adds to a global row over screening programmes.

The British researchers said their work, which contradicts some recent studies on screening programmes but confirms others, showed the benefits outweigh the harm screening can cause by picking up tumours that would not have presented a problem.

Duffy's findings contradict the results of a Nordic study published last week which found no evidence that routinely screening women for breast cancer had any effect on death rates.

The findings will also further fan a row which erupted in the United States in last November after public health officials on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force questioned whether annual screening mammograms for women under 40 actually saved lives and suggested raising the screening age to 50.

Cancer doctors and advocacy groups decried the move, saying the changes would mean more women die of breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, accounting for around 16 percent of all female cancers. It kills around 519,000 people globally each year.

Duffy and colleagues conducted two studies into the risk-benefit balance of screening programmes. One study predicted the number of women who would have died from breast cancer in Britain if the breast cancer screening programme had not been launched in 1988, and another looked at the number of breast cancer deaths among 80,000 women in Sweden, comparing those offered screening with those who were not.

The results, published in the Journal of Medical Screening , showed a "substantial and significant reduction in breast cancer deaths" from mammographic breast cancer screening with "between 2 and 2.5 lives saved" for every overdiagnosed case.

Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at the charity Cancer Research UK, said the study showed screening saves lives.

Source: Medical Screening

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