A study by researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, has revealed that as many as one-third of women diagnosed with breast cancer from public screening programmes may be treated for the disease unnecessarily.

Karsten Jorgensen and Peter Gotzsche reviewed screening data from patients in Australia, the UK, Canada, Norway and Sweden, looking at trends seven years before and after screenings were introduced. They found that when breast screening was introduced, doctors diagnosed more cases of breast cancer.

However, not all breast cancer tumours are life-threatening and some patients will die of other causes before a tumour become a health-risk – some breast tumours remain dormant or even shrink over time.

The researchers said that more women with tumours were treated as a result of screening – but some went on to have unnecessary surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, which may also cause harm.

The team says it is now essential to investigate how many women are treated for breast cancer unnecessarily and the implications of this regarding the funding of breast-screening programmes.

The study is published in the July issue of the BMJ.

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