Study: Women who participate in breast screening have greater benefit from treatments

Women who take part in breast screening have a significantly greater benefit from treatments than those who are not screened, according to a study of more than 50,000 women, led in the UK by Queen Mary University of London.

The research, using data from Sweden, finds that women who chose to participate in an organized breast cancer screening program had a 60 per cent lower risk of dying from breast cancer within 10 years after diagnosis, and a 47 per cent lower risk of dying from breast cancer within 20 years after diagnosis.

The authors say that this benefit occurs because screening detects cancers at an earlier stage, meaning that they respond much better to treatment.

The study was co-authored and funded by the American Cancer Society and appears in the American Cancer Society's peer-review journal Cancer.

In the UK, mammography screening is offered to all women aged 50-70 through the NHS Breast Screening Program, with participation rates averaging more than 70 per cent but varying dramatically across the country, with lower rates in poorer, inner-city areas.

Senior author Professor Stephen Duffy from Queen Mary University of London said: "Recent improvements in treatments have led to reduced deaths from breast cancer. However, these new results demonstrate the vital role that screening also has to play, giving women a much greater benefit from modern treatments. We need to ensure that participation in breast screening programs improves, especially in socio-economically deprived areas."

The study involved 52,438 women aged 40 to 69 years in the county of Dalarna, Sweden, during 39 years of the screening era (1977-2015). All patients received stage-specific treatment according to the latest national guidelines, irrespective of the mode of detection.

The investigators, led by Laszlo Tabar, M.D., of Falun Central Hospital in Sweden, used a new method to improve the evaluation of the impact of organized mammography screening on death from breast cancer, by calculating the annual incidence of breast cancers causing death within 10 years and within 20 years after breast cancer diagnosis.

Comments

  1. Jeff Fenton Jeff Fenton United States says:

    This new study is more pro-mammogram junk science presented as sound science to keep hoodwinking women about mammography.

    The study authors of this new "study" such as Duffy, Tabar, and Robert Smith, vice president for cancer screening at the American Cancer Society, have a long history of creating flawed pro-mammogram "studies" (just like this study that's funded by the American Cancer Society and published in a journal owned by them) which is no surprise if you knew that the American Cancer Society is a deceptive pro-profit organization of, by, and for corporate medicine, which has promoted disinformation about mammography for decades.

    Contrary to the official narrative (which is based on medical business-fabricated pro-mammogram "scientific" data), there is marginal, if any, reliable evidence that mammography, both conventional and digital (3D), reduces mortality from breast cancer in a significant way in any age bracket but a lot of solid evidence shows the procedure does provide more serious harm than serious benefit (read the books: 'Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy' by Peter Gotzsche and 'The Mammogram Myth' by Rolf Hefti).

    IF........ women (and men) at large were to examine the mammogram data above and beyond the information of the mammogram business cartel (eg American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, Komen), they'd also find that it is almost exclusively the big profiteers of the test, ie. the "experts," (eg radiologists, oncologists, medical trade associations, breast cancer "charities" etc) who promote the mass use of the test and that most pro-mammogram "research" is conducted by people with massive vested interests tied to the mammogram industry.

    Most women are fooled by the misleading medical mantra that early detection by mammography saves lives simply because the public has been fed ("educated" or rather brainwashed) with a very one-sided biased pro-mammogram set of information circulated by the big business of mainstream medicine. The above mentioned two independent investigative works show that early detection does not mean that there is less breast cancer mortality.

    Because of this one-sided promotion and marketing of the test by the medical business, women have been obstructed from making an "informed choice" about its benefits and risks which have been inaccurately depicted by the medical industry, favoring their business interests.

    Operating and reasoning based on this false body of information is the reason why very few women understand, for example, that a lot of breast cancer survivors are victims of harm instead of receivers of benefit. Therefore, almost all breast cancer "survivors" and the general public blindly repeat the official medical hype and disinformation.

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
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