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R/£ Breast cancer advice not always best - study
November 02, 2009 Edition 4
LONDON: Guidance on breast cancer screening is being rewritten after a study found that thousands of women were having unnecessary surgery.
Leading cancer experts have said existing Department of Health advice is misleading, inadequate and patronising - and fails to highlight the risks.
Under the new policy, women invited for screening by the National Health Service (NHS) will be told for the first time that some cancers may remain dormant and never spread.
The leaflet, sent with invitations to screening, was published in 2002 and updated four years later. Critics say it manipulates women by promoting the benefits without highlighting the risks.
It makes no mention of the major risk: potentially unnecessary surgery to remove lesions called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). DCIS accounts for about a fifth of all diagnoses by NHS screening.
Although fewer than half of these dormant cancers will become invasive, a third are treated with mastectomies.
In February, a Danish study showed that for every 2 000 women having regular screening for a decade, one life will be saved - but 10 women will have unnecessary mastectomies. - Daily Mail
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