Benefits of breast screening in real world questioned

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study looks at the impact of mammography in real world situations as opposed to in well-controlled clinical trials.
Regular breast screening by mammography is recommended by many authorities these days. The advice comes mainly from results obtained from carefully controlled clinical trials. However, it has not been clear how mammography impacts outside of the clinical trial situation - that is, in the 'real' world.

A team at the University of Washington reviewed records from 1,351 ethnically diverse women who had died of breast cancer between 1983 and 1998, comparing them with the records of 2,501 healthy women. They wanted to know the screening rates in the two groups. These turned out to be very similar - 69.7 per cent of the cancer patients aged between 50 and 65 years had been screened, compared with 69.2 per cent of those in the control group. The researchers do urge caution in interpreting these results which do not necessarily mean screening has no value. Maybe the quality of screening in research trials is better and more effective than that in the 'real' world? This would make trials confer more of a benefit in terms of reduction of breast cancer mortality.

Source
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 20th July 2005 Volume 97 pages 1035-1043

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