Screening has little impact on breast cancer deaths: study

Falling breast cancer death rates have little to do with breast screening but are down to better tre  atment and health systems, scientists said on Friday, in a study likely to fuel a long-running row over the merits of mammograms.

Researchers analyzed data from three pairs of countries and found that although breast cancer screening programs had been introduced 10 to 15 years earlier in some areas than in others, declines in death rates were similar.  The findings suggest that “improvements in treatment and in the efficiency of healthcare systems may be more plausible explanations” for falling deaths rates from breast cancer. Read more…

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