Breast cancer screening: time to target women at risk

A short version of the Marmot et al (2013) report published in full in this issue of British Journal of Cancer was previously published in The Lancet (Independent UK Panel on Breast Cancer Screening, 2012) and criticised by authors of 10 letters published in The Lancet on 9th March 2013 (The Lancet, 2013). The authors of the letters argued that some studies in the meta-analyses were better than others, that advances in treatment reduces the effect of screening substantially, that cause of death was not correctly registered, that the report panel did not take background rates of breast cancer mortality into consideration, that they used an inappropriate follow-up period, that effect of mammography screening is an area of uncertainty, that many assumptions are needed, that estimates of overdiagnosis were too high or too low, that data were presented in favour of screening, that screening actually increases breast cancer mortality and many more remarks of similar kind. The authors of the report politely and correctly addressed each comment.