Breast cancer screening: the evolving evidence.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer and death from cancer among women in the developed and developing world. Detecting and treating breast cancer earlier in its natural history improve prognosis and result in a reduction in breast cancer mortality. There have been eight population-based randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of mammography screening, which individually and collectively provide strong support for the efficacy of breast cancer screening. The evaluation of modern service screening also has shown that modern breast cancer screening is contributing to reductions in breast cancer mortality at a rate as good as or better than that observed in the RCTs. In the last decade, different interpretations of the evidence from the RCTs and observational studies have resulted in different screening guidelines and contentious academic debates over the balance of benefits and potential harms from breast cancer screening. In this paper, the historic and recent evidence supporting the value of breast cancer screening will be described, along with the underpinnings of the current debate over the relative and absolute benefit of regular mammography screening.

[1]  Håkan Jonsson,et al.  Reduction in Breast Cancer Mortality from Organized Service Screening with Mammography: 1. Further Confirmation with Extended Data , 2006, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.

[2]  Martin J Yaffe,et al.  TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN MAMMOGRAPHY , 2008, Health physics.

[3]  A. Elster,et al.  Risk of Radiation-induced Breast Cancer from Mammographic Screening , 2012 .

[4]  W. P. Evans,et al.  American Cancer Society Guidelines for Breast Cancer Screening: Update 2003 , 2003, CA: a cancer journal for clinicians.

[5]  V. Beral,et al.  The number of women who would need to be screened regularly by mammography to prevent one death from breast cancer , 2011, Journal of medical screening.

[6]  E. Paci,et al.  An estimate of overdiagnosis 15 years after the start of mammographic screening in Florence. , 2009, European journal of cancer.

[7]  S. Duffy,et al.  A case-control study to estimate the impact of the Icelandic population-based mammography screening program on breast cancer death. , 2007, Acta radiologica.

[8]  L. Tabár,et al.  REDUCTION IN MORTALITY FROM BREAST CANCER AFTER MASS SCREENING WITH MAMMOGRAPHY Randomised Trial from the Breast Cancer Screening Working Group of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare , 1985, The Lancet.

[9]  L. Holmberg,et al.  Effect of mammographic service screening on stage at presentation of breast cancers in Sweden , 2007, Cancer.

[10]  Gunnar Eklund,et al.  Randomised Trial from the Breast Cancer Screening Working Group of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare , 1985 .

[11]  S. Moss,et al.  The Effect of Mammographic Screening and Hormone Replacement Therapy Use on Breast Cancer Incidence in England and Wales , 2007, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.

[12]  L. Tabár,et al.  Overdiagnosis and overtreatment of breast cancer: Estimates of overdiagnosis from two trials of mammographic screening for breast cancer , 2005, Breast Cancer Research.

[13]  P. Kantoff,et al.  Sipuleucel-T immunotherapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer. , 2010, The New England journal of medicine.

[14]  A. Jemal,et al.  Cancer statistics, 2012 , 2012, CA: a cancer journal for clinicians.

[15]  B. Monsees,et al.  The Mammography Quality Standards Act. An overview of the regulations and guidance. , 2000, Radiologic clinics of North America.

[16]  S. Duffy,et al.  Evaluation of service screening mammography in practice: the impact on breast cancer mortality. , 2005, Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology.

[17]  A. Verbeek,et al.  A remarkable reduction of breast cancer deaths in screened versus unscreened women: a case-referent study , 2010, Cancer Causes & Control.

[18]  S. Moss.  Overdiagnosis and overtreatment of breast cancer: Overdiagnosis in randomised controlled trials of breast cancer screening , 2005, Breast Cancer Research.

[19]  C. Mathers,et al.  Estimates of worldwide burden of cancer in 2008: GLOBOCAN 2008 , 2010, International journal of cancer.

[20]  Marvin Zelen,et al.  Effect of screening mammography on breast-cancer mortality in Norway. , 2010, The New England journal of medicine.

[21]  E. Feuer,et al.  SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2003 , 2006 .

[22]  Philippe Autier,et al.  Breast cancer mortality in neighbouring European countries with different levels of screening but similar access to treatment: trend analysis of WHO mortality database , 2011, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[23]  Absolute numbers of lives saved and overdiagnosis in breast cancer screening, from a randomized trial and from the Breast Screening Programme in England , 2010, Journal of Medical Screening.

[24]  Jan Mæhlen,et al.  Incidence of breast cancer in Norway and Sweden during introduction of nationwide screening: prospective cohort study , 2004, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[25]  L. Tabár,et al.  The Swedish Two-County Trial twenty years later. Updated mortality results and new insights from long-term follow-up. , 2000, Radiologic clinics of North America.

[26]  Solveig Hofvind,et al.  The cumulative risk of a false‐positive recall in the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program , 2004, Cancer.

[27]  K. Kerlikowske,et al.  Efficacy of screening mammography among women aged 40 to 49 years and 50 to 69 years: comparison of relative and absolute benefit. , 1997, Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs.

[28]  Peter C Gøtzsche,et al.  Overdiagnosis in publicly organised mammography screening programmes: systematic review of incidence trends , 2009, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[29]  A. Auvinen,et al.  Evaluation of breast cancer service screening programme with a Bayesian approach: mortality analysis in a Finnish region , 2010, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

[30]  L. Tabár,et al.  Swedish two-county trial: impact of mammographic screening on breast cancer mortality during 3 decades. , 2011, Radiology.

[31]  H. Weedon-Fekjær,et al.  Effectiveness of population‐based service screening with mammography for women ages 40 to 49 years , 2012, Cancer.

[32]  Timothy J Wilt,et al.  Screening for breast cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. , 2009, Annals of internal medicine.

[33]  S. Shapiro,et al.  Periodic breast cancer screening in reducing mortality from breast cancer. , 1971, JAMA.

[34]  S. Duffy,et al.  Overdiagnosis, Sojourn Time, and Sensitivity in the Copenhagen Mammography Screening Program , 2006, The breast journal.

[35]  C. Klabunde,et al.  Breast cancer screening beliefs, recommendations and practices , 2011, Cancer.

[36]  P. Gøtzsche,et al.  Screening for breast cancer with mammography. , 2013, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[37]  Michael Waller,et al.  Effect of mammographic screening from age 40 years on breast cancer mortality at 10 years' follow-up: a randomised controlled trial , 2006, The Lancet.

[38]  Anthony D'Amico,et al.  Prostate cancer. Clinical practice guidelines in oncology. , 2007, Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN.

[39]  A. Berg,et al.  Screening for Breast Cancer: Recommendations and Rationale , 2002, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[40]  S. Rosso,et al.  Estimate of overdiagnosis of breast cancer due to mammography after adjustment for lead time. A service screening study in Italy , 2006, Breast Cancer Research.

[41]  D. Kopans,et al.  Cumulative Probability of False-Positive Recall or Biopsy Recommendation After 10 Years of Screening Mammography: A Cohort Study , 2012 .

[42]  Rhian Gabe,et al.  The randomized trials of breast cancer screening: what have we learned? , 2004, Radiologic clinics of North America.