NHS Breast Screening Programme response to the comments made by Professor Michael Baum

Published 26th September, 2000

The second European Breast Cancer Conference was held in Brussels, 26-30 September 2000. During that conference, there was a heated debate about screening leading to "unnecessary mastectomies" in women with DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ).

Professor Baum led the offensive against the programme, claiming that the NHS Breast Screening Programme was "deceiving women and that many women are having unnecessary surgery."

Our response is below.

"This is not the first time that Professor Michael Baum has attacked the NHS Breast Screening Programme and he seems to have a scalpel to grind on this issue. He would do well to check the relevance of the facts he quoted which are 25 years out of date and bear no relevance to the current NHS Breast Screening Programme."

"Around 2/3 of the cases of DCIS detected by the NHS Breast Screening Programme are of high grade and there is a high probability that these will develop into invasive breast cancer."

"Of the 8,000 cancers detected by the NHS Breast Screening Programme only 20% fall into the 'DCIS' category and not all will necessarily lead to mastectomy. Most women will be offered a choice between mastectomy and less drastic treatment.

"The whole point of the NHS Breast Screening Programme is to detect cancer early which makes earlier and less drastic treatment possible, and gives women a greater chance of survival."

"Only last week a paper was published in the BMJ which proves that the NHS Breast Screening Programme is saving women's lives in the UK."

"This is yet another case of Professor Baum launching unnecessary attacks on a programme that is recognised as a world leader in its field."