Screening Mammography: The Turning of the Tide?

Abstract

This issue of Current Oncology features a Countercurrents article by Dr. Steven Narod, [...]

Point: Mammography Screening—Sticking to the Science

“…Although Narod's loyalty to his mentor is commendable, I believe that if he were to study this evidence carefully, he would understand why the cnbss results should not be used to influence screening policy. To the extent that his article and the articles by Baum 13 and Foulkes 14 in the same issue of Current Oncology use the cnbss results as the foundation of their arguments discounting the value of mammography screening, while ignoring the large body of evidence supporting the benefits of mammography, they do an injustice to women for whom such programs represent one of the few proven interventions that can reduce their risks of death from breast cancer and of the morbidity associated with treatment of advanced disease.…”

“…Because of the onslaught against screening mammography presented in the paper by Narod and the editorials by Baum 13 and Foulkes 14 , I thought that it would be useful to revisit the problems that caused the cnbss to stand apart from the other randomized controlled trials of breast cancer screening in being the only trial that concluded with a higher breast cancer death rate in the group invited to screening compared with the control group. Those problems are likely the factors that prevented the cnbss from demonstrating a mortality reduction from screening in 1992, when the first publication of its results appeared 7,8 .…”