Overdiagnosis and breast cancer screening

Excerpt

Screening for breast cancer is now routinely performed in most countries where the disease is common. The benefits of screening have been established and are generally accepted. However, screening does have the potential for harm, the most important aspects of which are overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Breast Cancer Research has invited a series of papers to address the component dimensions of the field, and in particular to estimate the extent to which it occurs. The first article in the series, in which Sue Moss reviews overdiagnosis in randomised controlled trials of breast cancer screening, is published in this issue [1]. …