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The benefits of breast cancer screening outweigh the harms
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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A large-scale study by the European Screening Network, whose team included representatives from nine European countries, reviewed methods for detecting breast cancer. Scientists were able to establish that the benefits of diagnosis outweigh the harm.
The results of the researchers' research, published in the Journal of Medical Screening, show that screening every two years can save an average of seven to nine lives per thousand women aged 50 to 69. On average, screening will help four women out of a thousand get a new, accurate diagnosis.
Scientists have assessed the benefits of screening. They analyzed data on women's mortality from breast cancer and determined how many women's lives screening saved. That is, if women did not undergo screening for breast cancer, the oncological disease could progress without showing any signs. Accordingly, cancer could be diagnosed at a late stage of its development, which would lead to a fatal outcome.
The study also used data from the second working group of the European Network for Indicators on Cancer (EUNICE), which analysed and collected data on 26 screening programmes in 18 countries. These studies were conducted from 2001 to 2007. During this period, 12 million women were monitored.
Professor Stephen Duffy, from the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine in London and one of the coordinators of the EUROSCREEN programme, said: “This is the only large-scale study of cancer screening programmes in Europe. It shows the results of screening millions of women and confirms the findings of a study conducted a few years ago, in particular that the effectiveness of screening outweighs the potential harm caused by procedures such as mammography.”
“We hope that our research will enable every woman to weigh the pros and cons of screening for herself and make an informed choice,” says study co-author Dr Eugenio Paci.
Recently, the screening procedure has caused a lot of discussion about the harm it causes. So it is time to find out what outweighs the benefits or harms.
Experts believe that simply conducting research is not enough, because an important component of breast cancer prevention and treatment is women’s awareness of this oncological disease and methods of its diagnosis and treatment.