- The NHS Breast Cancer Screening Programme was launched in the UK in 1988 and invites all women aged between 50 and 70 to screening every three years.
- There has been an ongoing debate about the benefits and harms of screening for the past 10 years.
- An independent panel was tasked with analysing data from screening trials from a number of countries over recent decades.
- Its report concludes that screening reduces breast cancer mortality but that some overdiagnosis occurs.
- It found that for every life saved, three women were overdiagnosed.
Scientists and doctors who treat women with breast cancer have polarised views on the worth of screenings. Can a new report forge consensus?
Breast cancer screening leads to thousands of women undergoing unnecessary treatment despite saving lives, researchers have said.