The difference between “association” and evidence, between relative risk and absolute risk. Money spent on mammography screening might be better spent elsewhere.

In a article in The Times 4th June Kat Lay reports: Breast tests cut death risk by 40%.  Is this deliberately or accidentally poor reporting? Presumably Ms Lay knows the difference between relative and absolute risk, and the difference between “association” and evidence. Money spent on mammography screening might still be better spent elsewhere, (Time to end Mammography Screening) as it is the rich and well informed who attend. Those who don’t attend are in a self selected group at high risk.. These are the ones to focus on… Meanwhile the money spent might save more lives elsewhere, as most of the rich and well informed will continue to pay for the service – like dental care.. Ration the service openly, but if government must spend on mammography use a budget to bribe those who have never had a mammogram and are post menopausal to have their first one – and the same for smears.

Women who attend breast cancer screening when aged 50 to 69 reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer by 40 per cent compared with those who do not, an international review of test studies finds.

Women who are invited to have routine mammographies, as in Britain’s national programme, have a 23 per cent risk reduction compared with those who are not.

Researchers writing in the New England Journal of Medicine said the relative risk in Britain translated to about eight lives saved for every 1,000 women attending screening and five for every 1,000 women invited.

Stephen Duffy, professor of cancer screening at Queen Mary, University of London, said: “This important analysis will hopefully reassure women around the world that breast screening with mammography saves lives. The evidence proves breast screening is a vital tool in increasing early diagnosis of breast cancer and therefore reducing the number of deaths.”

The study also found that inviting women aged 70 to 74 for screening led to a substantial reduction in the risk of dying from breast cancer.

Critics of breast cancer screening say that it may do more harm than good, with false positive results leading to many women undergoing unnecessary and life-changing treatment.

Sarah Williams, Cancer Research UK’s health information manager, said: “There isn’t one definitive answer to the question of how the benefits and harms of breast screening stack up. Individual women will have different views on the factors that matter most to them.”