‘Overdiagnosis’: some breast cancer treatments may have been unnecessary, study suggests

When Jenny* had a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she believed the major surgery to remove her breast, although traumatic, had saved her life.

She described feeling “rage” when at a follow-up appointment three years later, she said to her surgeon, “I would probably be dead by now” if she had not received the surgery, to which he replied: “Probably not.”

It was only then, after she had already undergone invasive and life-changing treatment, that Jenny learned about “overdiagnosis”.

While breast cancer screening programs are essential and save lives, sometimes they also detect lumps that may never go on to cause harm in a woman’s lifetime, leading to overtreatment, and psychological and financial suffering.

Jenny is 1 of 12 women from the UK, US, Canada and Australia whose stories were published in the medical journal BMJ Open. It is the first study to interview breast cancer patients who believe they may have received unnecessary and harmful treatment, highlighting the effect this has had on their lives.

“The usual story of breast cancer screening is ‘screening saves lives’,” an author of the study and a professor of public health at the University of Sydney in Australia, Alexandra Barratt, said.

“This study reports the other side of the story – how breast cancer screening can cause harm through overdiagnosis and overtreatment.”

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Source: The Guardian, 8 June 2022