Report from 16 year UK breast screening trial

Excerpt

The UK Trial of Early Detection of Breast Cancer (TEDBC) was set up in 1979 to investigate the effect on mortality of both mammographic screening in combination with clinical examination, and education about breast self examination. Set in eight geographical areas in England and Scotland, two centres carried out mammographic screening with clinical examination, two taught breast self examination, and four served as comparison centres with no intervention. After a mean 6.6 years of follow up, breast cancer mortality was 14% lower in the two populations offering screening than in the comparison populations (20% when adjusted for pre-trial differences in mortality). The effectiveness of screening younger women has been much debated. Previously in this trial, at ten years of follow up, there was no significant difference in the screening-induced mortality reduction between younger (aged 45-59 years at trial entry) and older (aged 50+ years at entry) women. Here, additional women were recruited to the study at age 45 years for a further 6 years. Mortality after 16 years of follow up in these younger women can now be reported. …