The American College of Radiology (ACR) is taking issue with a study published in the December 8 issue of the British Medical Journal, which, the organization asserts, uses "discredited and obsolete data" to underestimate by half the number of lives saved by mammography screening.
The ACR's statement also calls into question the validity of the authors' comparison of anxiety from false positives to breast cancer deaths. The study was conducted by researchers at the Wessex Institute at the University of Southampton in the U.K.
Dr. Barbara Monsees, chair of the ACR Breast Imaging Commission, said the estimated 15% reduction in breast cancer deaths used in the study is the same figure used two years ago by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
"That estimate has been discredited by a series of large randomized, controlled trials and other data that prove the benefits [of mammography screening] is at least twice that," she said in a written statement.
Monsees also cited a recent analysis published in the American Journal of Roentgenology that concluded that if the USPSTF breast cancer screening guidelines were followed, approximately 6,500 additional women would die each year in the U.S. from breast cancer.
"No one can tell which cancers will never advance and which will become lethal," she added. "Therefore, until science can help to differentiate them, surgeons and medical oncologists will treat these patients, even though a small number of them may not benefit from treatment. The bottom line is that we know that discontinuing regular mammograms will result in thousands more breast cancer deaths each year. That human cost would be too high."
