Irish cancer experts decry breast cancer study findings

Irish cancer experts have urged caution about a British study that appears to show that breast cancer screening programmes have yet to show a reduction in the number of women who die from the disease.

The study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine suggests there is "no evidence" that screening women for breast cancer has an effect on mortality.

The research analysed mortality trends across England before and after the introduction of the NHS breast screening programme in 1988, focusing particularly on mortality statistics from the Oxford region.

Lead researcher Toqir Mukhtar said that while the results do not rule out a benefit of breast cancer screening at the level of individual women, “the effects are not large enough to be detected at the population level”.

However, Dr Ann O’Doherty, lead clinical director of Breastcheck, the Irish breast cancer screening programme, said the research covered a very long timeframe, going back before breast cancer screening was introduced, and used data for a purpose for which it was never intended.

The vast majority of international studies, including the major independent research carried out in the UK, showed a definite reduction in mortality rates resulting from screening programmes for breast cancer, she said. An independent panel set up by the UK health department concluded there was a 20 per cent relative reduction in mortality among women invited to screening.

Prof Arnie Hill, consultant cancer surgeon at Beaumont Hospital, described the study as “quite flawed”. Data collection techniques wouldn’t have been as sophisticated 40 years ago as they are now, he told RTÉ Radio.