Mammography Screening Linked to Overdiagnosis of Cancer

Of course it does.

Mammography screening is linked to overdiagnosis of breast cancer, according to findings from the Norwegian Screening Program reported in the April 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The investigators suggest that overdiagnosis not only poses a significant ethical dilemma but also burdens the patient and the healthcare system.

"Mammography screening increases breast cancer incidence owing to earlier detection of cancer that would otherwise have been diagnosed later in life and to overdiagnosis of cancer that would not have been identified clinically in a lifetime," write Mette Kalager, MD, from the Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues. "Overdiagnosis can theoretically occur because the tumor lacks potential to progress to a clinical stage or because the woman dies of other causes before the breast cancer surfaces clinically.... In both instances, however, the woman would be diagnosed and treated with no possible survival benefit."

That is the nature of screening procedures.