Breast cancer screening: a dividing controversy

Abstract

Aim: To report the conlcusions of articles and reviews assessing the benefit and harms of breast cancer screening in the world and in Tunisia.
Methods: This is a review of articles searched through specialized medical data bases (Pubmud, Science Direct) using the following key-words: Dépistage / Screening,Cancer du sein/ Breast Cancer, Surdiagnostic/ Overdiagnosis,Mammographie/ Mammography,Controverse/ controversy,Tumeur in Situ/ In Situ Tumour.

Results: We reviewed 36 articles published between 2001 and 2018 assessing the benefit of breast cancer screening. The mortality reduction due to breast cancer screening is estimated between 15-30% by the randomized trials. However, overdiagnosis is estimated between 0-50%.
Conclusion: Breast cancer screening has been useful in the fight against cancer. In the era of innovative and efficient therapies, breast cancer screening remains controversial due to the potential overdiagnosis. However, this concept still need to be defined more precisely and estimated more accuratly.