Breast Cancer Screening Overdiagnosis Rate Is Only 15 Percent: Study

Approximately one in seven cases of screen-detected breast cancer are overdiagnosed. However, while overdiagnosis is surely a problem, it occurs far less frequently than generally estimated. That is the conclusion of a new study published in the March edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The Diagnostic Challenge Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed and the second leading cause of death among US women. Only lung cancer is more deadly. Detecting breast cancer early saves lives. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for women with breast cancer is 90 percent. In other words, nine of 10 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer live at least five years longer after diagnosis. Mammogram screening is an effective method of detecting tumors. The downside is that it may result in what is known as “overdiagnosis,” which occurs when screening detects tumors that are actually harmless. The problem is that it is often difficult to judge the true danger posed by a tumor from a mammogram image. So, doctors who detect such tumors from a mammogram screening are apt to take a better safe than sorry approach and order biopsies, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation that the patient […]