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A new study has proved that over-diagnosis of invasive breast cancer can go up to as high as 42%. The study has disclosed that even though increased mammography screening could help in reducing the rate of mortality, it is not without negatives.
There is 30 to 42 percent excess of women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, over that expected, who undergo unnecessary treatment, which is about 23% to 29% of the total breast cancers.
"Other studies have looked into over-diagnosis of breast cancer before but our findings are unique," said Alex Barratt, who is a co-author of the study and associate professor, University of Sydney.
"They take into account risk factors such as hormone replacement therapy and obesity, both of which have increased the prevalence of breast cancer since about the same time as publicly-funded mammography screening programmes were introduced.
"Even when these risks are accounted for, we still find breast cancer over diagnosis is very high. Over diagnosis means many women are needlessly having surgery or other treatment at great personal cost," Barrat says.
"We know there is over diagnosis across the population but we can't pinpoint which women are over diagnosed," he adds, according to a Sydney varsity release.
These findings were published in the latest issue of Cancer Causes Control.
