Are breast cancer screening programmes increasing rates of mastectomy? Observational study

Abstract
We studied the period from 1990 to 1996. During this time 59 947 women aged 50-69 years were invited to a prevalence screen and to subsequent screens at two year intervals (2.4 years in practice).2 At the beginning of 1990 no women had been invited; by the end of 1994 all the women had been invited to at least one screen. Attendance rates averaged 60%. We considered cases of breast cancer with pathological size T2 or greater to be late stage. Early stage cases included tumours of less than 2 cm size and in situ carcinomas.