What general practitioners should do about breast screening

few suitably trained radiologists.The results of the United Kingdom Coordinating Committee on Cancer Research breast screening frequency trial which is designed to identify the optimum interval for screening should become available next year.The existence of a properly funded national quality assurance programme with a comprehensive feedback system has ensured that, although the preliminary results from the United Kingdom's national programme seemed satisfactory, the occurrence of a higher than expected rate of interval cancers has been recognised early.Immediate steps are being taken to identify the reasons why and implement corrective action.