Better without the mammograms?
Menée à partir de données néerlandaises et de données de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé, cette étude analyse, pour la période 1989-2012, l'effet d'un programme biennal de dépistage du cancer du sein par mammographie sur l'incidence de cancers mammaires de stade II à IV et la mortalité spécifique, puis estime le taux de surdiagnostic
In 2001 a Cochrane meta-analysis of randomised trials reported that mammography screening reduces breast cancer related mortality by 15% and that one in three cancers are overdiagnosed.1 No randomised trials have been performed since then, except an update of a Canadian trial that found no effect of mammography screening on breast cancer mortality at a cost of 22% overdiagnosis of cancer.2 Results from observational studies can be dichotomised in to those concluding that mammography screening is associated with little or no benefit but substantial overdiagnosis and those reporting larger benefits and only limited overdiagnosis.
BMJ , éditorial en libre accès, 2016