The panel has been carefully chosen to avoid bias – but, interestingly, no women on the panel. Are there no female statisticians in the UK? 

The Scottish Breast Cancer Campaign welcomes the news in today’s BMJ that Mike Richards, Cancer Director in England, has initiated an independent  review of the evidence surrounding breast cancer screening.

He has also promised to examine how written information on screening is conveyed to the public and how “to promote informed choice.”

We have been a lone voice inScotland, questioning the manner in which information is presented to women who are invited to take part in the national breast screening programme and we hope that this review inEnglandwill address some of the concerns we highlighted earlier in the year. We are confident that the Minister for Health and Well-being inScotlandwill follow developments inEnglandvery closely and consider the adoption inScotlandof any recommendations which come from this much-welcomed review.

Moira Adams, Director

Letter to the Scotsman dated 1 August 2011 regarding screening research

photos courtesy www.rwt-photography.co.uk

photos courtesy www.rwt-photography.co.uk

Big thanks to all involved in LLYSF for a fab 4 days up at Stirling.

Final total raised from donations, the auctions and raffle was a whopping £464! Can’t thank you enough.

• Regular screening reduces the number of deaths from breast cancer.

• Breast cancer mortality rates have decreased over the past 20 years due to the better management of the disease and to advances in treatment options .

• In the past 20 years fewer women across all age groups have died from breast cancer– not just those in the screened group .

• Screening can find cancer early, before you know it’s there. The earlier breast cancer is found, the better chance of surviving it. If breast cancer is found early, you are less likely to have a mastectomy (your breast removed) or chemotherapy .

• Screening can find early forms of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). It is not known which cases of DCIS will become harmful so treatment is offered to all of these women .

• Almost 30 per cent of DCIS is treated by mastectomy .

• For every 2000 women invited for screening throughout 10 years, one will have her life prolonged. In addition, 10 healthy women, who would not have been diagnosed if there had not been screening, will be diagnosed as breast cancer patients and will be treated unnecessarily. It is thus not clear whether screening does more good than harm .

• Overdiagnosis ……. is arguably the most important harm associated with early cancer detection………the impact of overdiagnosis can be life-long and affects patients’ sense of well-being, their ability to get health insurance, their physical health, and even their life expectancy

• Some cancers don’t show up at all on mammograms….. Cancer may develop between screening appointments.

• Two out of three cancers are picked up by women themselves between screening appointments .

• X-ray exposure increases the risk of cancer; screening is an x-ray. For every 14,000 women screened regularly for 10 years, one woman may develop breast cancer because of the radiation from the mammograms .