The debate over the value of the UK Breast Cancer Screening programme reached a wider audience today, as the media picked up Mike Richards' announcement in the BMJ of an independent review. A recent Cochrane review has suggested that screening for breast cancer "seems likely to reduce breast cancer mortality" but the level of reduction is small. Moreover the extent of disbenefit from unnecessary treatment for misdiagnosed healthy women, along with psychological distress, means that it is "not clear whether screening does more good than harm."
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